Tag: LGBTQ

Review: ‘Call Me Mother’ (2025), starring Vice Ganda and Nadine Lustre

January 17, 2026

by Carla Hay

Vice Ganda and Lucas Andalio in “Call Me Mother” (Photo courtesy of Star Cinema)

“Call Me Mother” (2025)

Directed by Jun Robles Lana

Tagalog with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in the Philippines, in 2025 (with some flashbacks to 2015), the comedy/drama film “Call Me Mother” features a predominantly Filipino cast of characters (with a few white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A transgender woman, who has been a longtime coach for beauty pageant contestants, is the legal guardian of a 10 year-old boy whom she has raised since he was a baby, but her plans to legally adopted him become threatened when his wealthy biological mother comes back into his life.

Culture Audience: “Call Me Mother” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and are interested in movies about transgender people who want to become adoptive parents.

Vice Ganda, Lucas Andalio and Nadine Lustre in “Call Me Mother” (Photo courtesy of Star Cinema)

“Call Me Mother” has some overwrought melodrama, but the movie has plenty of charm, thanks to a charismatic performance from Vice Ganda. It’s a bittersweet story of a transgender mother’s quest to adopt a 10-year-old boy whom she’s raised since his infancy. The movie has some very broad comedy, but it remains respectful of a sensitive topic: transgender people who want to become adoptive parents.

Directed by Jun Robles Lana, “Call Me Mother” was co-written by Lana, Daisy G. Cayanan
and Daniel S. Saniana. The movie takes place in the Philippines, primarily in the city of Pasic. “Call Me Mother” was filmed on location in the Philippines. Most of the story’s timeline is in 2025, but there are some flashbacks to 2015.

“Call Me Mother” begins in 2015, when Twinkelito “Twinkle” Paoros de Guzman, also known as Twinkelito “Twinkle” Paoros Reyes (played by Ganda) is shown doing what she loves to do the most as a job: being a coach for beauty pageant contestants. Twinkle (who is in her late 40s) lives openly as a transgender woman. She has to be one of the luckiest transgender women in the world because the movie somewhat unrealistically shows that everyone whom Twinkle interacts with is completely accepting of her being transgender.

Twinkle is a strict and demanding coach, but she truly cares about the women whom she coaches. Twinkle also has a fun-loving side to her when she’s not working. One of the women whom Twinkle coaches is Mara de Jesus (played by Nadine Lustre), who has what it takes to be a winning contestant for the televised Miss Uniworld Pageant, which has various contestants representing various major cities in the Philippines. Mara comes from a wealthy family and has a domineering mother named Mila (played by Carmi Martin), who expects Mara to be perfect.

“Call Me Mother” doesn’t waste a lot of time before showing Twinkle becoming a mother. It happens when Twinkle’s own mother dies, and Twinkle becomes the guardian for the baby son named Angelo (played by (played by Jarren Aquino), who had been recently adopted by Twinkle’s single mother. Nothing else is really told about Twinkle’s personal experiences before this story takes place. For example, there is no mention of when Twinkle came out as transgender, and there is no mention of her having any romances.

Twinkle treats Angelo as if he were her own biological son. But there’s a major complication to Angelo’s adoption story. Angelo is really the biological son of Mara. (This is not spoiler information because it’s revealed in the movie’s trailer.) Mara got pregnant and gave birth to Angelo when she was 18. The biological father of Angelo is not mentioned at all.

A flashback shows Mara was in her first trimester of her pregnancy when she competed in the 2015 Miss Uniworld Pageant. She kept her pregnancy a secret from everyone except the people closest to her. During the pageant’s interview segment on stage, Mara was asked if she had to choose between having a child or having a career, which would she choose? Mara was so flustered by this question, she fainted before she gave an answer. This fainting caused her to lose in the pageant.

Mila was furious that Mara was pregnant and demanded that Mara give baby Angelo up for adoption. Mila decided that Twinkle’s single mother, the housekeeper for the de Guzman family, would be the person to take care of Angelo, after Twinkle’s mother offers to adopt Angelo. Mila thinks if Mara kept the child, then it would tarnish Mara’s reputation and ruin Mara’s chances of becoming a successful beauty pageant contestant.

In 2025, Angelo (played by Lucas Andalio) is a vivacious and sensitive child. He is very attached to Twinkle, who is an adoring and attentive mother. Twinkle’s work as a beauty pageant coach doesn’t pay enough for a family of two, and the job demands too much of her time as a single parent. She has “retired” from this type of work and now has a job in retail sales at a store that sells beauty products.

Twinkle has promised Angelo that she will take him to Disneyland in Hong Kong. But in order to do that, they need passports. And in order to get the passport, Angelo has to be legally adopted. Twinkle takes the necessary steps to start the adoption process, with help from an adoption social worker officer named Mutya (played by Chanda Romero), who is friendly and professional.

Mara is now a famous fashion model/humanitarian who is engaged to marry a wealthy heir named Anton Villeneuve (played by River Joseph), who knows that Mara gave a son up for adoption in 2015. Anton has kept this secret, which very few people know outside of their family. Anton is also very loving and supportive of Mara in whatever decisions she makes.

Angelo knows he’s not Twinkle’s biological son, but Twinkle and Mutya avoid telling Angelo direct answers when he asks for details about his biological family. Twinkle and Mutya say that Angelo will be told the details when the time is right. Angelo accept this response, but you just know that “Call Me Your Mother” is the type of movie where Angelo will find out the truth in a way that will upset him.

Twinkle needs Mara to sign off on this formal adoption. And it just so happens that Mara wants something from Twinkle: Mara wants Twinkle to be her coach for Mara’s beauty pageant “comeback.” Mara wants to compete in the 2025 Miss Uniworld Pageant to “redeem” herself and win the pageant that she thought she would’ve won in 2015, if she hadn’t fainted on stage.

Twinkle agrees to be Mara’s coach under three conditions: (1) Twinkle wants a big salary raise from the most recent time that she was a coach. Mara agrees to pay four times the amount of Mara’s previous coach salary. (2) Mara has to stay away from Angelo. (3) Mara has to sign the necessary documents to allow Twinkle to legally adopt Angelo.

Mara agrees to these terms. But in a movie like “Call Me Mother,” it isn’t long before she breaks one of the rules. She doesn’t do it on purpose though. Mara ends up meeting Angelo by chance when she sees him outside Twinkle’s house and prevents an unnamed teenage bully (played by Bon Lentejas) from stealing Angelo’s computer tablet. In the tussle that ensues, the tablet falls on the ground and breaks.

Twinkle comes out of the house and sees what happens right at the moment that Mara tells a sobbing Angelo that Mara can buy a new tablet for Angelo, and Angelo hugs Mara. This interaction infuriates Twinkle, who mistakenly thinks that Mara deliberately set up this meeting with Angelo and is trying to buy Angelo’s love. An argument ensues in front of a confused Angelo, who doesn’t know that Mara is his biological mother.

Mara explains to Twinkle that she went to Twinkle’s house because she left her phone inside the house and came to retrieve the phone. Twinkle accepts this excuse but feels very annoyed and anxious that Angelo has now met Mara, and Angelo seems to like Mara a lot. Angelo will also be seeing more of Mara, now that Twinkle is coaching Mara again. For now, Twinkle and Mara act like Mara is a friend of the family.

“Call Me Mother” takes the issue of adoption seriously, but it tends to erase or ignore the hateful bigotry that transgender people experience in everyday life. Not once does Twinkle’s transgender identity become an obstacle to her adoption plan. Even in the most politically progressive nations, transgender people adopting through a social services agency can be controversial. Twinkle also doesn’t experience any discrimination for being transgender from any strangers either.

The biggest prejudice depicted in the film has to do with socioeconomic status. Much of the conflict in the story is about Twinkle being insecure and jealous that Mara can buy and do things for Angelo that Twinkle can’t afford. Mara starts to have an increasing maternal affection for Angelo, so Twinkle is understandably paranoid that Mara will change her mind about signing over her parental rights to Twinkle.

An inevitable rivalry develops between Twinkle and Mara over Angelo. This rivalry is the source of the movie’s scenes that are the most comedic and the most melodramatic. After a while, privileged Mara noticeably acts like Angelo would be better off in a home with a higher income, while Twinkle feels a lot of resentment about Mara giving gifts to Angelo as a way to get closer to Angelo.

“Call Me Mother” has a compelling story about how the definition of “family” can mean different things to different people, but the movie leaves a lot of questions unanswered. Twinkle and Angelo live in a household with five people in their 20s, including Twinkle’s brother Marco (played by Brent Manalo) and Marco’s girlfriend Bea (played by Mika Salamanca). The other housemates are named Ria (played by Shuvee Etrata), Mayet (played by Klarisse de Guzman) and Vince (played by Esnyr Ranollo), who is the housemate who stands out the most because he’s a flamboyant drag queen or transgender woman.

It’s never really explained why Twinkle is in this living situation with all these people, but she acts like a “house mother” to all of them. Vince seems to be involved in helping Twinkle with some of her pageant coaching. But whatever these other housemates are doing with their lives remains a mystery in the movie. Do any of these housemates have jobs? Are any of them students? Are any of them unemployed? Don’t expect answers to those questions. These housemates are mostly seen hanging out in the house and giving emotional support to Twinkle.

Twinkle has friends close to her own age, but very little is told about these friends except that they are transgender women. Mama M (played by John “Sweet” Lapus) is Twinkle’s best friend and is the pal most likely to give advice to Twinkle. It’s implied that Twinkle and Mama M helped each other a lot when they began living openly as transgender women. Twinkle’s other close friend is Dorothy (played by MC Muah), who is mostly in the story as comic relief.

Another transgender woman in the movie is Diosdado “Ms. J” Patumbong (played by Iyah Minah), who is Mara’s personal assistant/bodyguard. Ms. J mentions early on in the movie that she recently had her gender surgery. And that’s all the movie really tells about Ms. J because she’s another supporting character with a vague personal life. Ms. J is friendly with Twinkle, but things get awkward for Ms. J when Mara starts to compete with Twinkle over Angelo.

Andalio is adorable as Angelo and gives a talented performance. Viewers should be prepared to see him do a lot of gut-wrenching crying and wailing. It seems like Angelo spends at least half of his screen time crying or being on the verge of crying. And who can blame him? Angelo experiences a lot of deception and betrayal from adults who are only thinking of themselves and their own egos.

It would be too easy to put Mara in the role of “villain,” but “Call Me Mother” doesn’t have that judgmental attitude. Instead, the movie is empathetic about Mara’s feelings of guilt and doubt about making the decision to give Angelo to someone else to raise. And to be fair, it’s implied that Mara made this decision mostly because of enormous pressure from her mother because Mara initially wanted to raise Angelo herself. Lustre adeptly portrays Mara as someone who is much more complicated than being a “spoiled princess” type.

The glue that holds “Call Me Mother” together, when it could easily fall apart, is how director Lana skillfully balances the movie’s comedy and the drama. Ganda’s acting as Twinkle can get a little too hammy in the scenes intended to make people laugh, but Ganda’s overall performance shows a convincing range in all the emotions that Twinkle has in the movie. “Call Me Mother” doesn’t make Twinkle a saintly parent. Twinkle makes some bad mistakes, but she’s wiling to admit when she’s wrong and learn from these mistakes.

When there are movies about biological parents who want custody of kids who were primarily raised by other people, these movies can often have hokey and unrealistic endings. “Call Me Mother” has moments of unabashed sentimentality, but it has a clear-eyed view of how an adoption process like the one shown in this movie can be painful for everyone because difficult decisions need to be made. The movie has a meaningful message that it’s up to the adults involved in the situation to truly do what is in the best interest of the children, who are often the ones who suffer the most.

Star Cinema released “Call Me Mother” in select U.S. cinemas on January 9, 2026. The movie was released in the Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand on December 25, 2025.

Review: ‘The Chronology of Water,’ starring Imogen Poots, Thora Birch, Susannah Flood, Tom Sturridge, Kim Gordon, Michael Epp, Earl Cave, Esme Creed Miles and Jim Belushi

January 14, 2026

by Carla Hay

Imogen Poots in “The Chronology of Water” (Photo courtesy of The Forge)

“The Chronology of Water”

Directed by Kristen Stewart

Culture Representation: Taking place in various parts of the United States, from 1969 to 2016, the dramatic film “The Chronology of Water” (based on writer Lidia Yuknavitch’s 2011 memoir of the same name) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Lidia Yuknavitch experiences a troubled life of substance addiction, self-harm and trauma from childhood sexual abuse in her journey to becoming a celebrated writer.

Culture Audience: “The Chronology of Water” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of Yuknavitch, filmmaker Kristen Stewart, the movie’s headliners, and well-acted biographical movies about talented but tortured artists.

Thora Birch and Imogen Poots in “The Chronology of Water” (Photo courtesy of The Forge)

Bold and intentionally chaotic, the biographical drama “The Chronology of Water” takes viewers into the troubled mind of writer Lidia Yuknavitch, with a tour-de-force performance from Imogen Poots. It’s an unsettling but memorable film. Some viewers won’t like the stream-of-consciousness format of the film, while others will appreciate that the movie is like a puzzle telling the story of Yuknavitch’s life, with not all the puzzle pieces being found at the end. “The Chronology of Water” has a lot of quick-cut editing, to reflect the fragmented memories depicted in the movie.

Written and directed by Kristen Stewart, “The Chronology of Water” is Stewart’s feature-film directorial debut. Stewart is also one of the producers of the film. “The Chronology of Water” had its world premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. The movie is based on Yuknavitch’s 2011 memoir of the same name. “The Chronology of Water” (whose timeline is from 1969 to 2016) takes place in various parts of the United States. The movie was actually filmed in Malta.

Poots portrays Yuknavitch (who was born in San Francisco on June 18, 1963) from her teenage years until her early 50s. She also does voiceover narration that often sounds like poetry readings. The movie chronicles Yuknavitch’s journey from surviving sexual abuse from her father going from being a swimming star at her high school to a failed attempt at becoming an Olympic swimmer because of substance addiction; and her eventual discovery of her talent as a writer. Yuknavitch’s bisexuality, three marriages and her experiences with pregnancy are also depicted in the movie.

For the purposes of this review, the real people will be referred to be their last names. The movie characters will be referred to by their first names. “The Chronology of Water,” which is told in five chapters, has occasional flashbacks to Lidia’s childhood to show the abuse that she suffered from her cruel father Mike (played by Michael Epp), who had a Jekyll and Hyde personality. The abuse is not shown in explicit details, but there are sound effects of the beatings and rapes that leave no doubt about what is happening.

In real life, Yuknavitch’s birth surname was Yukman. She changed her surname to Yuknavitch as an adult. In order to avoid confusion, the movie makes Lidia have the surname Yuknavitch during her childhood and teen years. To the outside world, her family seems to be a typical middle-class family in Gainesville, Florida. But behind closed doors, the family was very dysfunctional and hiding years of horrific abuse.

Lidia at 6 or 7 years old (played by Anna Wittowsky) is seen as someone who was very close to and almost worshipful of her sister Claudia (played by Marlena Sniega), who is about seven or eight years older than Lidia. Claudia experiences abuse from their father too, but since the movie is told from Lidia’s perspective, Claudia’s pain is hinted at but not fully explored. Claudia tries to protect Lidia, but since they both live in fear of their father and because Claudia is also a child, there’s a limit on what Claudia can do to stop the abuse. The sisters’ mother Dorothy (played by Susannah Flood) has alcoholism and is often too drunk to notice or care that her daughters are being abused.

As a teenager, Lidia excels as a swimming athlete, but even her accomplishments are fraught with experiences that damage her self-esteem. An unnamed and unseen male coach does weigh-ins of the female swimmers on the school’s team and gives them a hard spank on the rear end for each pound of extra weight that he thinks the swimmer should lose. And when Lidia gets only partial (not full) swimming scholarship offers from colleges and universities, her father is furious and treats her as if she’s a loser.

Just like many kids abused by a parent, Lidia has hatred of the abusive parent but still loves the parent and wants the parent’s approval. Mike has criticisms of almost everything that Lidia does. If she doesn’t wear feminine clothes, he snarls at her, “Are you trying to look like a man?” He tries to control everything that she does and plays mind games with Lidia about how he feels about her.

A scene that shows Mike’s bizarre moodiness takes place in the garage of the family’s house. Lidia, who is in her late teens and close to graduating from high school, wants to run away from home. Her father sees her in the garage and tells her in a gentle voice, “I want you to know that I love you,” before his face fills with rage and he snaps, “You fucking whore!” It’s implied that Mike has undiagnosed bipolar disorder, but that’s still no excuse for his disgusting abuse.

It should come as no surprise that when Lidia moves away from her family to go to college in Texas, she tries to submerge her trauma by abusing alcohol and drugs. One day, when she’s hanging out on a college campus lawn, she sees a mild-mannered student name Phillip (played by Earl Cave), who’s by himself as he sings and strums an acoustic guitar. Lidia can sense that Phillip—who is sensitive, kind, and loving—is the opposite of her father. Lidia sets out to seduce Phillip and succeeds.

But the relationship of Lidia and Phillip is off-kilter from the start because Lidia has so much self-hatred that she’s not in a place in her life where she can truly have a healthy and loving relationship. Phillip’s qualities that initially attracted Lidia to him end up being repulsive to her. She complains to Phillip that he’s passive and “too nice” for her. She purposely instigates mean-spirited arguments with him, almost as if she wants Phillip to break up with her.

Phillip doesn’t mistreat her and he doesn’t want to break up with her, but you know things will not end well for this couple. After the first time that Lidia goes in rehab, Phillip arrives to pick her up in a car when she completes the program and tells her that he’s proud of her. Lidia, who is in a sour mood, then begins to insult him. But by the end of the conversation, she proposes marriage to him, and he says yes. This is her first doomed marriage. Years later, in hindsight, Lidia expresses remorse for how badly she treated Phillip during their relationship.

As adults, sisters Lidia and Claudia (played by Thora Birch) are in and out of each other’s lives, mostly because their lives go in completely different directions. Claudia’s adult life is relatively stable with her husband (who is never seen in the movie), while Lidia’s life is very messy. Claudia remains steadfastly loyal to Lidia whenever Lidia needs her. Their parents show up for milestone events in Lidia’s life, but as an adult, Lidia seems to purposely avoid her parents as much as possible.

Lidia’s talent for writing is noticed by certain people, including her close friend Claire (played by Esme Creed Miles), who later becomes Lidia’s lover. Claire encourages a reluctant Lidia to join a University of Oregon graduate-school program taught by writer/counterculture celebrity Ken Kesey (played by Jim Belushi), whose claim to fame is the 1962 novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and for being a founder of the psychedelic artistic group the Merry Pranksters. In the movie, Ken is portrayed as an eccentric, friendly, drug-taking burnout, who encourages his students to be their best and is haunted by the death of his son. From 1987 to 1988, Lidia is part of this student group that collaborates with Ken on the group-authored book “Caverns.” She eventually gets her Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Oregon.

Lidia’s second marriage is to an avant-garde performance artist named Devin (played by Tom Sturridge), and it’s a different type of failure from her first marriage. Devin also has alcoholism, so their marriage plays out in the movie like fractured memories of someone who had too many drunken blackouts during the relationship. Lidia’s arrest for driving while intoxicated is one of her “rock bottom” moments, but “The Chronology of Water” doesn’t have any details about whether or not Lidia ever had years of sobriety from alcohol and drugs after admitting to having these addictions.

Lidia’s third marriage is to filmmaker Andy Mingo (played by Charlie Carrick), whom she meets in her 40s, when he is a student in her writing class, and she is a semi-famous writer who can’t afford to have a car. Andy is compassionate and patient, but he’s no pushover, like her first husband Phillip. It’s during this part of Lidia’s life that she’s not the self-destructive train wreck that she once was. And although she doesn’t expect to fall in love with Andy, she does.

Poots has done some great acting in movies over the years, but she is usually overlooked for major awards. She is a marvel to watch as Lidia in “The Chronology of Water,” as she embodies every type of emotion in this gutsy and compelling performance. Birch also gives a fantastic performance as the more low-key Claudia, who may not be as outwardly angry as Lidia, but the ways Birch expresses Claudia’s inner agony and turmoil through her eyes and body language are just as credible and impactful.

The movie has an interesting casting choice with Belushi, who is known mostly for his comedic roles. Ken is the closest thing that the movie has for comic relief, but the comedy is bittersweet. Ken is someone who is way past his prime, and he knows it, but he still has a certain zest for life that inspires his students. Kim Gordon (former bass guitarist for the rock band Sonic Youth) is another unexpected casting choice: She has a cameo (about five minutes of screen time) as an unnamed photographer who gives dominatrix service to Lidia.

As a filmmaker, Stewart shows unique artistic vision in “The Chronology of Water,” which purposely avoids pandering to mainstream predictability. And it’s the same reason why some viewers might feel alienated by how this story is presented: There are no trite or easy answers to Lidia’s problems. Some people might think the narrative style of “The Chronology of Water” is too rambling and pretentious. Others will think it’s refreshing and challenging because it will make viewers curious about where the story is headed next. The movie has sharp observations about the beauty, ugliness, joy, despair and everything in between about Lidia’s life.

The movie gets its title from the fact that water is a constant theme in Lidia’s life, whether it is the escape she feels from swimming, or when she is in a shower after cutting herself and blood is seen going down the drain, or she finds comfort from taking a bath in a bathtub. Lidia also experiences some life-altering moments near a beach. “The Chronology of Water” is not supposed to be an easy film to watch. But for people open-minded enough to experience the movie, it offers a clear and hopeful message that recovery from trauma and self-sabotage is difficult but can be possible and is an ongoing process.

The Forge released “The Chronology of Water” in select U.S. cinemas on December 5, 2025, with wider expansion to more U.S. cinemas on January 9, 2026.

Review: ‘100 Nights of Hero,’ starring Emma Corrin, Nicholas Galitzine, Maika Monroe, Amir El-Masry, Charli XCX, Richard E. Grant and Felicity Jones

December 5, 2025

by Carla Hay

Emma Corrin and Maika Monroe in “100 Nights of Hero” (Photo by Christopher Harris/Independent Film Company)

“100 Nights of Hero”

Directed by Julia Jackman

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed medieval fantasy world, the fantasy comedy/drama film “100 Nights of Hero” (based on the graphic novel “The 100 Nights of Hero”) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people, Latin people and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: After refusing to have sex with his newlywed wife, her husband makes a bet with a close friend that the friend won’t be able to seduce the wife, who goes through a journey of self-discovery with help from her storytelling maid.

Culture Audience: “100 Nights of Hero” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, the novel on which the movie is based, and unusual movies about gender roles, feminist ideology, and sexual seduction through mind games.

Nicholas Galitzine and Maika Monroe in “100 Nights of Hero” (Photo by Matthew Towers/Independent Film Company)

The dark comedy fantasy “100 Nights of Hero” is a quirky adaptation of Isabel Greenberg’s novel. The movie (about a virginal bride at the center of a sexual competition) is sometimes disjointed, but it’s an intriguing rebuke of misogynistic oppression. The film’s pacing is occasionally dull, but if viewers are still interested in watching the movie about 30 minutes into this 91-minute film, then the movie will keep viewers guessing how the movie is going to end. There’s a big part of the movie’s conclusion that is obvious and telegraphed about halfway through the film, but the rest might be surprising to some viewers.

Written and directed by Julia Jackman, “100 Nights of Hero” had its world premiere at the 2025 Venice International Film Festival and later screened at the 2025 BFI London Film Festival. The movie is based on Greenberg’s 2016 graphic novel “The 100 Nights of Hero,” which has been described as a “feminist fairy tale.” The story takes place in a fictional medieval fantasy world where almost everyone has British accents. “100 Nights of Hero” was filmed on location in the Knebworth area of England.

The movie has intermittent voiceover narration from a narrator (voiced by Felicity Jones) who remains unseen. Jones (who is an executive producer of “100 Nights of Hero”) also has a small acting role as a character named Moon, who’s in the movie for only about five minutes. The first third of “100 Nights of Hero” is when the movie is at its most rushed and jumbled. The movie hits its stride by the middle of the story.

“100 Nights of Hero” begins by showing the wedding of a woman named Agnes (played by Markella Kavenagh) to an unnamed man (played by Cory Peterson) whom Agnes does not want to marry. It’s an arranged marriage in this patriarchal society, where women are not allowed to be educated beyond learning how to speak and doing things such as cooking, cleaning and other duties that will please men. In this society, a woman’s greatest purpose is to marry and become a mother. Male heirs are considered more important than female heirs. There are many societies today that still teach these attitudes.

The movie’s narrator explains how this “100 Nights of Hero” world came into existence. A teenage girl named Kiddo (played by Safia Oakley-Green) created the world, but her domineering father Birdman (played by Richard E. Grant) demanded that the world would have a population of many people made into his image. Birdman literally looks like someone wearing a bird costume, so expect to see many anonymous “bird people” in the movie. Unbeknownst to the guests at Agnes’ wedding, Agnes was already pregnant with a daughter named Hero. The narrator says that Hero “will change the world.”

The movie then fast-forwards to 27 years later to a scene taking place at a castle owned by a wealthy lord named Jerome (played by Amir El-Masry), a newlywed who lives there with his virtuous wife Cherry (played by Maika Monroe), who is still a virgin in the beginning of the movie. Jerome and Cherry are having a meeting at a large dining table with Birdman and several other men in the community.

Birdman is upset that Cherry still hasn’t become pregnant after six months of marriage to Jerome. Cherry, who is polite and soft-spoken, is considered Birdman’s “ideal” type of wife. Birdman personally chose Jerome to marry Cherry in this arranged marriage because Jerome promised that Cherry would be able to produce a male heir. Birdman ominously tells Jerome that he has 101 nights to impregnant Cherry, or else Jerome “will not see the next spring” (Jerome will be killed.) “Now, hurry up and conceive,” Birdman tells Jerome and Cherry in his dismissal comment.

A montage of flashbacks show that ever since the wedding night of Jerome and Cherry, Jerome has come up with excuses to delay having sex with Cherry. Is he impotent? Is he not sexually attracted to Cherry? Is ne not sexually attracted to any women? The movie leaves it up to interpretation and never reveals why Jerome is avoiding having sex. Jerome is not overtly cruel to Cherry, but he does treat her like an obligation who has made him bored. Cherry is confused but does not complain, like a dutiful wife.

Cherry has an isolated existence. She has all the material things that most people would want. But she has never experienced romantic and passionate love. Her best friend (and only friend) is her maid Hero (played by Emma Corrin), who is very loyal to Cherry. Hero is also very observant and intelligent and knows a lot more than she reveals to most people.

One day, Jerome is visited by a restless and cocky friend named Manfred (played by Nicholas Galitzine), who is a recent widower. Jerome listens as Manfred complains about how Manfred’s deceased wife had been cheating on Manfred before she died. Manfred, who seems to be relieved that his wife dead, is ready to jump back into the playboy bachelor lifestyle that he had before he got married.

Manfred says with some envy that Jerome is very lucky to have a beautiful and doting wife such as Cherry. Jerome lies to Manfred by saying that he and Cherry have a passionate sex life. Jerome has an upcoming business trip and asks Manfred to look after Cherry while Jerome is away. Manfred asks Jerome out loud why he would leave his wife alone with Manfred. “Because I trust you,” Jerome replies.

This leads to Jerome bragging that Cherry would never cheat on him. Manfred, who thinks he’s an expert at seduction, has a hard time believing it. To prove it, Jerome makes a bet with Manfred: Jerome will leave the castle for 100 nights instead of the original plan for Jerome to only be away for only a few nights. And if Manfred can sexually seduce Cherry before Jerome returns to the castle, then Manfred can have the castle. Jerome and Manfred agree to this secret bet.

Jerome tells Cherry that he will be going away on a business trip for a few days, knowing full well that he will be gone for 100 nights. Sometime during his absence, Jerome tells her that he will be away much longer than he expected. While Jerome is away, Manfred schemes up various ways to try to seduce Cherry and gradually develops romantic feelings for her.

Hero sees right through Manfred and becomes a “third wheel” in his seduction manipulation. Hero is often nearby when Manfred would rather be alone with Cherry. Hero begins telling a long story to Cherry and Manfred to keep them entertained. This story becomes a “movie within a movie” in “100 Nights of Hero.”

The story is essentially about three strong-willed sisters, whose unnamed sea captain father (played by Jeff Mirza) wants all of daughters to become wives and mothers. The three daughters are Rosa (played by Charli XCX), Caterina (played by Olivia D’Lima) and Mina (played by Kerena Jagpal), with Rosa being the most independent minded of the three. One of the three sisters marries a merchant (played by Tom Stourton) while the sisters hide a big secret that could get them persecuted and executed as witches.

The “movie within a movie” aspects of “100 Nights of Hero” are hit and miss. On the one hand, the story of the three sisters has a certain level of suspense because Hero’s storytelling is constantly being interrupted, so she has to continue the story at other times. On the other hand, these interruptions are often clumsily handled in the movie.

The film also an awkward way handling the timeline for the Hero/Cherry/Manfred part of the story. There are few scenes where Manfred and/or Cherry have lost track of how many days have passed. What they think is a time period of only a few weeks turns out to be several weeks. It’s just the movie’s not-so-clever way of speeding up the timeline.

The most entertaining performances in “100 Nights of Hero” come from Corrin and Galitzine because Hero and Manfred develop an unspoken rivalry for Cherry’s attention and affection. There’s a lively and comedic spark to how Corrin and Galitzine perform in these roles that should keep viewers curious to see what will happen when Manfred tries to be sneaky about his seduction and finds it difficult because Hero always seems to be watching.

The real battle of wits isn’t between Manfred and Cherry. It isn’t between Manfred and Jerome. It’s between Manfred and Hero. (Corrin, Galitzine and Monroe all have executive producer credits for “100 Nights of Hero.”)

Monroe is adequate in her role as Cherry, but she’s the only principal character in “100 Nights of Hero” who has an American accent, which makes Monroe look miscast in a movie that’s supposed to take place in an era that existed centuries before the United States was formed. Grant is barely in the movie; his screen time is less than 10 minutes. And when he’s on screen, he’s behind a bird mask.

Charli XCX, who is best known as a music artist, makes her feature-film acting debut in “100 Nights of Hero,” which features some of her original songs, including “Everything Is Romantic.” Charli XCX’s acting is passably good, but Rosa doesn’t do much in the movie except pout and talk to her family members. In other words, it’s not a difficult role.

The narrative occasionally stalls and gets muddled in “100 Nights of Hero,” but the movie’s cinematography, production design and costume design are visually striking. The costume design is slightly reminiscent of some the wardrobe in “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Poor Things,” but there’s enough originality in Susie Coulthard’s “100 Nights of Hero” costume design for it to leave a distinct impression.

There’s some brief comic relief in the characters of three security guards (in armor suits) named John (played by Jordan Wallace), David (played by Michael Keough) and Sam (played by Jordan Coluson), who are in the background but occasional bumble and stumble when they see something unexpected. For a movie where sexual seduction is a big part of the story, “100 Nights of Hero” plays it very safe because there are actually no explicit sex scenes or nudity in the film. “100 Nights of Hero” can be considered a love story that isn’t so much about who ends up with whom but about the power of confidently being and loving who you are.

Indepedent Film Company released “100 Nights of Hero” in U.S. cinemas on December 5, 2025.

Review: ‘The Rocky Mountain Mortician Murder,’ starring Anthony Wright, Linette Griffy, Gina Griffy, Carol Coates, James Bullock, Laura Anderson Wright, and Troy Zook

November 26, 2025

by Carla Hay

An archival photo of Byron Griffy in “The Rocky Mountain Mortician Murder” (Photo courtesy of Investigation Discovery)

“The Rocky Mountain Mortician Murder”

Directed by Donnie Eichar

Culture Representation: The three-episode limited documentary series “The Rocky Mountain Mortician Murder” (about a murder case in Fowler, Colorado) features an all-white group of people representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: After an elderly mortician is found murdered in his home, suspicion falls on four men, including two mortician partners who owned a rival funeral business. 

Culture Audience: “The Rocky Mountain Mortician Murder” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching true crime documentaries about murder mysteries and people with shocking secrets.

Anthony Wright in “The Rocky Mountain Mortician Murder” (Photo courtesy of Investigation Discovery)

By the end of watching “The Rocky Mountain Mortician Murder,” you just might be surprised that there hasn’t been more media attention about this very unusual case about a mortician’s 2012 murder in Fowler, Colorado. This well-edited three-episode true docuseries chronicles this twisted homicide case in a way that will keep viewers in suspense if they don’t know the outcome. There’s a good variety of interviews representing all sides of this controversial mystery.

Directed by Donnie Eichar, “The Rocky Mountain Mortician Murder” unfolds like a riveting mystery novel, but the facts uncovered are stranger than most fiction. “The Rocky Mountain Moritican Murder” has a typical assortment of actor re-enactments and dramatic score music, but the tone of the series is not exploitative. The murder victim’s family members are given ample screen time, as well as people who offer different perspectives.

Everyone interviewed in this documentary either knew the murder victim or was directly involved in the legal aspects case. There are no interviews with tabloid journalists or social media influencers. If a true crime documentary has tabloid journalists and/or social media influencers as the documentary’s primary sources, then it usually means that the quality of the documentary isn’t very good.

“The Rocky Mountain Mortician Murder” is about the murder of mortician Byron Griffy, who was the owner and founder of Griffy Family Funeral Home in Fowler, Colorado. On October 12, 2012, Griffy was found shot to death in an empty bedroom at his home in Fowler. Griffy, who lived alone and was 76 when he died, was shot in the back of his neck. His body was on the floor, and he was lying face up.

There were no signs of a break-in at the house. There were no indications that Griffy was in a physical fight or had any self-defense wounds. Cash and other valuable items were left in the house. The gun that was used to shoot Griffy was not found.

His daughter Linette Griffy and her wife Gina Griffy (who are both interviewed in the documentary) discovered Byron’s body at about 8:30 p.m., but investigators say that the time of death was in the early afternoon. One of the most difficult aspects of solving this crime was there was no evidence, such as DNA or fingerprints, that could point to anyone else being in the room besides Byron.

Some of Byron’s blood was splattered near an electrical wall socket at the bottom of the wall. But other than that blood, the room appeared to be thoroughly wiped clean. Investigators in the documentary say that the position of Byron’s body indicated that he was dragged there and put in a position that looked staged.

“The Rocky Mountain Mortician Murder’s” three episodes flow cohesively with each episode’s theme. Episode 1, titled “Brothers, Sons and Lovers,” gives the most background on all of the major people involved in the case. The episode ends by revealing some bombshell information. Episode 2, titled “Closets Hide Skeletons,” delves deeper into the scandalous secrets that were exposed, and the episode ends on another cliffhanger, when it’s revealed which of the suspects died. Episode 3, titled “Burying the Guilty,” includes the official cause of death of one of the suspects, the arrest of another suspect, the trial that took place, and the aftermath of the trial.

Byron is described by several people in the documentary as being kind, helpful and generous. But he was no squeaky-clean angel. Later in the documentary, it’s revealed that he had some dirty secrets. And before he died, he was convicted of a crime that damaged his business and tore his family apart.

Although there was no physical evidence tying any perpetrator to the crime, four men were viewed as likely suspects. Each of these suspects had a motive to kill Byron and no solid aibli during the murder timeline, according to many people who are interviewed in the documentary. “The Rocky Mountain Mortician Murder” examines each theory and lets viewers make up their own minds, although two of the suspects definitely look more suspicious than the other two.

The four men who came under scrutiny in the investigation were:

  • Charles Giebler, a co-owner of Charles Anthony Funeral Home in Florence, Colorado, which is about 67 miles southeast of Fowler. In 2012, Giebler was also the mayor of Florence and a bishop leader of a Christian church in Florence.
  • Anthony Wright, a co-owner of Charles Anthony Funeral Home. In 2012, Wright was living with Giebler and was a deacon in the church that he co-founded with Giebler.
  • Cory Higgs, Gina Griffy’s troubled son, who had a history of violence.
  • Tommy Tomlin, a drug-addicted drifter who did occasional jobs for Byron Griffy.

Wright is interviewed in the documentary and maintains that he had nothing to do with the murder. Giebler, Higgs and Tomlin are not interviewed in the documentary. But all four of these supects were interviewed by police and denied having anything to do with the murder. The documentary includes archival footage clips of police interviewing the four men separately in an interrogation room.

By the time the case was closed, one of these four men would be arrested and go on trial, one of the other men would be dead, and some other key witnesses died before a defense investigator could interview these witnesses. Secret affairs and other scandals would also be revealed. This review will not give details on the most shocking aspects of this case, in order to let viewers find out for themselves by watching the documentary.

Wright and Giebler, who moved to Colorado from Salt Lake City, told people that they were half-brothers with the same mother. Eric Hatfield, who became Wright’s stepson when his mother married Wright in 2013, says in the documentary he used to work for Wright and Giebler, whom he describes as shady businessmen who liked to privately brag to him about the ways that they committed tax fraud. Eric Hatfield’s brother Paul Hatfield is also interviewed in the documentary.

Eric Hatfield and a few other people interviewed in the documentary describe Giebler as the domineering and aggressive mastermind of the Charles Anthony Funeral Home ownership duo, while Wright was the duo’s “muscle” who put plans into action. Eric Hatfield says that the church founded by Giebler and Wright was just a sham way to make tax-free money. He also describes Giebler and Wright as big spenders who would buy luxury cars and collect guns.

Wright admits he became a bit of a hoarder for these items, as well as for valuable coins. Byron had a massive collection of coins and gold that he entrusted to Giebler and Wright for safekeeping because Byron didn’t have the storage space for his collection. Byron’s collection was worth nearly $1 million, according to people in the documentary who knew about the collection.

His daughter Linette says that Byron made the mistake of not documenting which items he entrusted to Giebler and Wright. During the time that Giebler and Wright had Byron’s collection, the duo went on a spending spree. And when Byron asked to have his collection returned to him, Linette says that Giebler and Wright kept delaying and made excuses.

When Giebler and Wright finally returned Byron’s collection items after Byron died, it was only a small fraction of what Byron originally had. Wright and Giebler insisted that they returned everything that Byron gave to them. To this day, the majority of Byron’s missing coins and gold have not been found.

Florence is a small town with a population of a little more than 3,800 people. Fowler is an even smaller town, with a population of a little more than 1,800 people. Wright says in the documentary: “When you live in a small town, things you want hidden don’t stay hidden.” He also describes Byron Griffy as a friend. Wright says that the leaders of the Charles Anthony Funeral Home and the Griffy Family Funeral Home would frequently help each other out and were mutually respectful of each other.

Wright also claims that, unlike many morticians, he wasn’t motivated by greed: “I wasn’t like that. Becoming a funeral director is almost more like a calling. A lot of it isn’t always pleasant, but with funeral homes in small towns, you’re pretty much like family. Byron Griffy was the same way.”

Byron’s daughter Linette says that her father was “her favorite person in the world” and immediately accepted her when she told him that she’s a lesbian. He bought Linette a house when she moved back to Fowler as a single mother of three kids. Her household expanded when she married Gina Griffy, who had her own kids and a mother who also lived in the home.

Linette says in the documentary that she believes Wright and Giebler were either responsible for her father’s death or know what happened. On the day that Byron died, he was supposed to meet Wright and Giebler for lunch in Fowler. The plan was for Wright and Giebler to drive to Byron’s home, and then the three of them would have lunch in town. Wright and Giebler gave witness statements saying that they went to Byron’s home that day but left after no one seemed to be home.

Investigators were suspicious because Wright and Giebler said they drove a black Mercedes to Byron’s house that day, but surveillance video footage from a parking lot that was not far from Byron’s house proved that Wright and Giebler had actually driven a white Chevrolet Astro van to the house. After being caught in this lie, Wright and Giebler made the excuse that they had been mistaken. In his police interviews, Giebler claimed he couldn’t remember a lot about the day that Byron was murdered.

Another discrepancy that raised suspicions was Wright and Giebler telling police that they approached Byron’s house from the front when they arrived at his house. But it was common knowledge with visitors who regularly went to the house (such as Wright and Giebler) that the only way to get to the house by vehicle was through the path at the back of the house. Wright refused to take a lie detector test, but he willingly volunteered his DNA when police asked for it. The documentary doesn’t mention what Giebler’s reaction was when Giebler was asked to take a polygraph test and give his DNA.

During the time before Byron’s death, the Griffy family had already been in turmoil. Gina Griffy’s young-adult son Cory Higgs had accused Byron of sexually abusing him, which led to Byron becoming a convicted sex offender who was ordered to stay away from Higgs. Byron’s daughter Linette says that Byron always denied he committed this abuse and was depressed about being convicted of the crime, but she insists he was not suicidal.

The family was also in chaos because Higgs was also abusive. According to his mother Gina, when Higgs was an underage teenager, he choked her, and was put in the foster care system. When Higgs became an adult, he broke his mother’s shoulder, she says. This assault caused Byron to completely turn against Higgs, whom Byron had been mentoring to take over the Griffy Family Funeral Home. Byron told people that Higgs retaliated by falsely accusing Byron of sexual abuse.

Regardless of who was telling the truth about the sexual abuse, things got so bad in the household that Linette and Gina decided to move out of the house that Byron had purchased for Linette and start over somewhere new. And that’s around the time that Byron was murdered. Higgs did not have a solid alibi for the timeline of Byron’s murder. Higgs said he was home alone and sleeping.

In the documentary, Linette and Gina both admit that Gina’s son Higgs could’ve had a motive to murder Byron and shouldn’t be completely ruled out as a suspect. Gina says of her son: “I know he did it or had something to do with it.” Gina also describes him as “extremely intelligent, violent and manipulating.”Linette is more skeptical that her stepson Higgs is guilty of murdering Byron, and she says she doesn’t think he’s capable of murder.

What Linette and Gina both agree on is that they think Wright and Giebler had more of a motive to kill Byron—the motive likely being greed for Byron’s valuable collection of coins and gold, and to prevent Byron from reporting the collection as stolen. In the last few weeks of his life, Byron had been putting pressure on Wright and Giebler to return the entire collection to Byron, who might have reported the collection as stolen if he didn’t get all of it back. A police investigation into a reported theft might have uncovered more than what Wright and Giebler wanted the police to know.

Tomlin came under suspicion because he was the last person to have admitted seeing Byron alive. Tomlin says he visited Byron and left Byron’s house sometime between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. on the day of the murder. Tomlin was one of the non-family members who spent enough time with Byron at the home to know Byron’s routines. Tomlin’s alibi could not be verified. Byron had stopped hiring Tomlin, which could have been a motive for Tomlin to kill Byron because Tomlin (who did not have steady employment) needed money for his drug addiction.

However, nothing was stolen from the house on the day of the murder. Tomlin took a lie detector test that showed deception. It should be noted that lie detector results are not admissable in most court cases. A variety of factors can skew the results of the tests, such as if the person taking the test is under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Laura Anderson Wright, a former parishioner of Wright’s church, married Wright in 2013. In the documentary, she vigorously defends Wright and echoes his declarations of being not guilty of murdering Byron. Anderson Wright doesn’t really point fingers at anyone whom she thinks committed the murder, but she says that Wright has been unfairly been put under suspicion. She also says that Wright had nothing to do with the death of another suspect in the case.

Other people interviewed in the documentary are Carol Coates, former captain of the Otero County Sheriff’s Department in Colorado; Angela Disanti, a former employee of Charles Anthony Funeral Home; Bo Fowler, coroner of Otero County; James Bullock, district attorney of Otero County; Shane Prickett, retired Florence police officer; Harry Tomlin, Tommy Tomlin’s brother who was a friend of Byron Griffy; Georgia Enslow, a friend of Byron Griffy; Florence resident Larry Nelson; Brian Allen, former manager of Holt Funeral Home in Cañon City, Colorado; and Troy Zook, a criminal investigator for defense teams, who worked with the defense team for the trial that happened in this case.

“The Rocky Mountain Mortician Murder” is an example of the harsh reality that crime cases are not what they originally seem to be. It’s a documentary that will be unsettling to people who expect a murder victim to be fit the typical definition of a “good person,” or expect murder trials to have a certain outcome. However, what comes through loud and clear in the documentary is that no matter what misdeeds Byron Griffy did in his life, he didn’t deserve to be murdered. Technically, this murder case is closed, but it’s questionable if the whole truth will ever be revealed and if justice was served.

Investigation Discovery premiered “The Rocky Mountain Mortician Murder” on November 26, 2025.

Review: ‘I Wish You All the Best,’ starring Corey Fogelmanis, Amy Landecker, Lena Dunham, Alexandra Daddario and Cole Sprouse

November 15, 2025

by Carla Hay

Cole Sprouse, Corey Fogelmanis and Alexandra Daddario in “I Wish You All the Best” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)

“I Wish You All the Best”

Directed by Tommy Dorfman

Culture Representation: Taking place in North Carolina, the dramatic film “I Wish You All the Best” (based on the novel of the same name) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans and one Asian) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A nonbinary teenager moves in with their older sister after being kicked out of their parents’ home, and the teen starts a new life during a period of self-discovery. 

Culture Audience: “I Wish You All the Best” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, the book on which the movie is based, and coming-of-age stories about LGBTQ+ people.

Miles Gutierrez-Riley and Corey Fogelmanis in “I Wish You All the Best” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)

“I Wish You All the Best” is a well-acted and charming coming-of-age drama about a nonbinary teenager who starts a new life after experiencing parental rejection. The movie is sweet-natured but unrealistic in some areas. That’s because after the teenager moves to a new city, the teenager doesn’t experience any prejudice from the people in this new city. The only bigotry/ignorance depicted in the movie comes from the teenager’s parents.

Written and directed by Tommy Dorfman, “I Wish You All the Best” is based on Mason Deaver’s 2019 novel of the same name. The movie (which is Dorfman’s feature-film directorial debut) had its world premiere at the 2024 SXSW Film & TV Festival. “I Wish You All the Best” takes place in North Carolina, primarily in the capital city of Raleigh. The movie was actually filmed in Los Angeles.

“I Wish You All the Best” begins with a brief montage of 16-year-old Ben De Backer (played by Corey Fogelmanis) having a seemingly idyllic life. In this montage, Ben (who is nonbinary and whose pronouns are “they/them”) is very close to Ben’s parents: Ben De Backer Sr. (played by Judson Mills) and Cathy De Backer (played by Amy Landecker). All three are seen watching a movie together at home in a seemingly loving and supportive environment. But everything changes one night, when Ben comes out as nonbinary to Ben Sr. and Cathy, who are religious conservatives.

This coming-out scene is not shown in full detail, but only snippets are seen in flashbacks. All viewers know is that Ben’s coming-out experience was emotionally painful, Ben’s parents rejected Ben, and Ben ran out of the home that night with no shoes on. Ben fled to a local convenience store, where Ben made a frantic and tearful call to Ben’s older sister Hannah Wallace (played by Alexandra Daddario), who lives in Raleigh. Ben tells Hannah what happened and asks her to take them to Hannah’s home, where Ben lives for the rest of the story. Ben’s 17th birthday takes place during this period of time.

Hannah, who is about 15 years older than Ben, lives with her husband Thomas Wallace (played by Cole Sprouse), who is a teacher at a high school in Raleigh. Ben and Hannah haven’t seen each other in 10 years because Hannah has been estranged from their parents, for reasons that are revealed in the movie. It should come as no surprise that liberal and open-minded Hannah has had her own issues with her conservative parents.

Hannah and Thomas (who is also liberal and open-minded) have an infant son named Cyrus, so Hannah is currently a homemaker. Thomas forges a permission notice from Ben’s parents so that Ben (who is a junior-year student) can be enrolled in the school where Thomas teaches. This type of forgery is illegal but is kind of glossed over in the movie because Ben’s parents accept that Ben wants to live in Raleigh with Hannah and Thomas. Hannah and Thomas eventually file an official application to become Ben’s legal guardians.

Ben is quiet and introverted and has an interest in fashion and art. Ben is very talented at drawing and painting portraits. Even though Ben is shy, it isn’t long before Ben meets three schoolmates who will become Ben’s closest friends: bisexual Nathan (played by Miles Gutierrez-Riley), queer Sophie (played by Lisa Yamada) and straight Meleika (played by Lexi Underwood), who considers herself to be an ally to LGBTQ people. All of Ben’s new friends are open about their sexual identities. Ben mentions later in the movie that Ben was a loner in Ben’s previous school.

Ben meets Nathan (who is a year older than Ben) when Thomas asks Nathan to give Ben a tour of the school’s campus. Nathan introduces Ben to Nathan’s friends Sophie and Meleika. Ben is immediately accepted into their social circle. In many ways, Nathan has a personality that is the opposite of Ben’s personality. Nathan is optimistic and confident. Ben is pessimistic and insecure. Ben and Nathan’s relationship evolves from a friendship into a romance.

The parents of Ben’s new friends are never seen in the movie, even though Ben sometimes spends the night at Nathan’s place. Ben, Nathan and their teenage friends never talk about what it’s like to be openly queer in their high school, which is a regular public high school, not an “alternative” school. The movie needed more realism in the teenagers’ conversations, which tend to be sitcom-ish and a bit superficial.

Ben gets mentorship from two adults who also happen to be queer: Ben’s nonbinary art teacher Ms. Lions (played by Lena Dunham) and gay transgender man Chris (played Brian Michael Smith), who is Ben’s supervisor at the senior citizen day camp where Ben gets a part-time job. It’s all so convenient how the only teachers/mentors who are shown interacting with Ben (aside from Ben’s heterosexual brother-in-law Thomas) are also queer. All of the cast members’ performances are very good (Fogelmanis and Gutierrez-Riley are the movie’s standout cast members), but the screenplay is the part of the movie that doesn’t ring entirely true.

Ben wears skirts and makeup in public and never even gets stared at by strangers. And although Raleigh is one of the more politically liberal cities in North Carolina (the city tends to elect conservative Democrats), it seems like a fantasy for the movie to depict Raleigh as a place where queer teens can go and not experience any hurtful prejudices from people who live there. Ben’s angst has mostly to do with how Ben feels about being rejected by Ben’s parents, who live in another city, which is unnamed in the movie.

Ben also gets lucky in Ben’s first romance as an openly nonbinary person because Ben’s partner Nathan is also openly queer and completely respectful to Ben. Ben’s biggest complaint about Nathan is Ben thinks Nathan is too cheerful. Ben experiences bouts of depression (in one part of the movie, Ben doesn’t leave home for a week and stays mostly in bed), but these mental health struggles are treated in a shallow way. Ben just gets a few stern lectures (not professional counseling) about this depression from the concerned adults in Ben’s life.

Many movies about LGBTQ+ people are centered on the hateful bigotry that LGBTQ+ people experience. It’s understandable if the filmmakers of “I Wish You All the Best” didn’t want to focus the movie on this type of harmful experience or for the movie to revolve around LGBTQ+ trauma. But at the same time, it’s far-fetched to erase the existence of this prejudice from the protagonist’s current community while positioning anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry solely as something from the protagonist’s past community, as represented by the protagonist’s parents.

Experiencing bigotry is a fact of life for anyone from a historically oppressed group of people. This type of toxic discrimination doesn’t magically go away by moving to a more politically liberal city. By refusing to address this reality, “I Wish You All the Best” does a disservice to its intended audience. However, if people are looking for a relatively lightweight approach to a coming-of-age story about a teenager who happens to be nonbinary, then “I Wish You All the Best” fulfills that purpose.

Lionsgate released “I Wish You All the Best” in U.S. cinemas on November 7, 2025.

Review: ‘Christy’ (2025), starring Sydney Sweeney, Ben Foster, Merritt Wever and Katy O’Brian

November 5, 2025

by Carla Hay

Ben Foster (pictured at left) and Sydney Sweeney in “Christy” (Photo courtesy of Black Bear Pictures)

“Christy” (2025)

Directed by David Michôd

Culture Representation: Taking place in various parts of the United States, from 1989 to 2010, the dramatic film “Christy” (a biopic of American former boxing champ Christy Martin) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some African American and Latin people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: While Martin was at the top of her career, she was also trapped in an abusive marriage to her coach/manager, and she became addicted to cocaine.

Culture Audience: “Christy” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of Martin, the movie’s headliners and formulaic but well-acted celebrity biopics.

Ben Foster and Sydney Sweeney in “Christy” (Photo courtesy of Black Bear Pictures)

The choppy drama Christy is partly a boxing biopic and partly a true crime story about Christy Martin. It’s a showcase for the versatile acting talents of the cast members, but the narrative has some hokey stereotypes usually found in made-for-TV movies. The uneven pacing for the story (including a fairly abrupt ending) doesn’t ruin the movie, but it lowers the quality of the movie, which is a mixed bag of impactful moments and maudlin predictability.

Directed by David Michôd (who co-wrote the “Christy” screenplay with Mirrah Foulkes), “Christy” had its world premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. The movie is a fairly ambitious project where Sydney Sweeney plays the role of Martin from when Martin was in her early 20s to when Martin was in her early 40s. Martin was born on June 12, 1968, in Mullens, West Virginia. Unfortunately, the mediocre hairstyling and makeup for “Christy” don’t make the aging process look believable for the Christy Martin character in the movie.

“Christy” viewers have to watch Sweeney wear several obvious wigs (many of them ill-fitting), while the movie’s makeup department didn’t do a very good job to realistically age the character. As Martin, Sweeney looks like she’s in her mid-to-late 20s for most of the movie. It’s a bit distracting for people who know that the story’s timeline is supposed to take place over a period of about 21 years.

“Christy” is told in chronological order, from 1989 to 2010. The movie has a captioned epilogue that mentions what happened in Martin’s life between 2010 and 2025, when the movie was released. For the purposes of this review, the real Christy Martin will be referred to by her last name, while the Christy Martin in the movie will be referred to by her first name.

“Christy” begins by showing with a voiceover of Christy saying, “Someone told me once that I fight like I was trying to destroy everyone who did me wrong … Maybe it’s true.” Christy, whose birth name was Christy Salters, is then shown at about age 21, when she was living in Itmann, West Virginia. At the time, Christy had a basketball scholarship at Concord College in West Virginia.

Christy proudly shows her brother Randy Salters (played by Coleman Pedigo) the $300 she recently won in a Tough Man boxing competition. “Easiest 300 bucks I ever made,” Christy brags. Randy is happy for Christy and proud of her athletic accomplishments. Their mother Joyce Salters (played by Merritt Wever) has the opposite reaction: She’s horrified that Christy has taken an interest in boxing.

Joyce is a religious conservative who’s also displeased about Christy being romantically involved with Christy’s basketball teammate Rosie (played by Jess Gabor) because Joyce firmly believes that homosexuality or queerness is a sin that can send people to hell. Christy and Rosie are mostly closeted in a relationship that no one fully acknowledges but it’s an open secret. (In real life, the Rosie character was Sherry Lusk, a basketball teammate whom Martin began dating when they were in high school.)

Joyce speaks softly, but she’s the domineering and controlling parent in the Salters household. Her husband Johnny Salters (played by Ethan Embry) is also a religious conservative, but he’s not as harsh, judgmental and image-conscious as Joyce is. However, Johnny almost always goes along with whatever Joyce wants.

During a family dinner, Joyce gives this order to Christy about Christy’s relationship with Rosie: “We don’t want you to see her anymore. What you’re doing is not normal. We want you to have a normal and happy life.” Joyce also suggests that Christy and Rosie get counseling from a priest as a way to convince Christy and Rosie to break up.

A conflicted and troubled Christy pours her energy into boxing and getting into other physical fights. At school, Christy gets into trouble for punching a basketball teammate who calls Christy a “fucking lesbian” while the team is having a practice session. Joyce discourages Christy from boxing because she thinks it isn’t ladylike and because women’s boxing was not considered a professional sport in the late 1980s.

However, Joyce starts to change her mind when a Bristol, Tennessee-based boxing promoter named Larry Carrier (played by Bill Kelly) takes an interest in paying Christy to box. Larry offers Christy an all-expenses-paid trip to Bristol to fight in a boxing match where the prize is $5,000. Christy easily wins the boxing match.

After this boxing match, Larry tells Christy that a boxing coach/manager named James “Jim” Martin (played by Ben Foster) wants to meet Christy at a later date. Rosie has accompanied Christy to Bristol. Larry notices how Christy and Rosie are together and quickly figures out that Christy and Rosie are both queer. Jim tells Christy that Christy’s mother needs to accompany Christy on the trip to meet Jim because Jim is a “family-oriented person.” Larry says it in a way so Christy knows that Jim is homophobic, and Jim won’t accept Christy being openly queer.

The first time that Christy meets Jim in a boxing gym, he’s standoffish and rude to her. He doesn’t take her seriously because Christy is a lot shorter than he thought she would be. And he hasn’t seen her fight yet. As a test, Jim has a male boxer do a mock boxing match with Christy. Jim quietly tells the male boxer to “hurt her” because Jim doesn’t want anything to do with Christy. You can easily predict what happens next: Christy ends up knocking out her male opponent.

The more Jim sees Christy box, the more he takes an interest in her and the type of money he can make from her boxing talent. Jim, who is 25 years older than Christy, charms Joyce by giving the impression that he will be a protective and conservative father figure to Christy. Jim convinces Christy to live with him in Bristol while he becomes her coach and her manager. Around the same time, Rosie and Christy drift apart because Rosie stays in West Virginia and begins dating a man.

Jim orders Christy to grow her hair and wear pink boxing outfits, so she looks more “feminine.” It isn’t long before Jim abuses his authority and power over Christy and gets sexually involved with her. By 1991, Jim and Christy are married because he convinces her that he’s the only one who can make her a rich and famous boxing champion. Jim tells Christy that it would be easier to achieve that goal if they were married.

“Christy” then goes through the usual motions showing the “rise, fall, and rise again” story arc that is typical in most celebrity biopics. Christy wins most of her boxing matches and becomes America’s first famous female professional boxer. Jim and Christy eventually move to Florida and settle in the city of Apopka.

The movie is more about how Christy became a boxing champion in spite of Jim, not because of him. Jim is hateful, abusive and controlling in all the worst ways. It also comes as no surprise when the movie shows he was also stealing money from Christy.

There are some lurid aspects to this story, such as when Jim forces Christy to do homemade porn videos, which he uses to blackmail her. The movie also hints that Jim became Christy’s pimp who would sell her to male fans who wanted to do erotic boxing and other sexual activities with her. There’s nothing too explicit in the movie, but there’s enough in the movie for viewers to figure out that it happened.

Christy and Jim’s toxic marriage is also plagued by their cocaine addiction. The movie depicts her account that Jim was the one who introduced her to cocaine and encouraged her to heavily use the drug. And as this dysfunctional marriage continues, the abuse gets worse, until it spirals out of control on the night of November 23, 2010. Even though what happened that night made big news that led to an arrest and trial, this review won’t say what happened, in case “Christy” viewers who don’t know the details might want to see the movie to find out.

Once the “Christy” biopic takes a turn into the true crime aspect of her life, it becomes somewhat like a Lifetime movie, with a very rushed ending where the victim’s recovery is presented as too quick to be an entirely accurate depiction of what happened in real life. However, Foster’s portrayal of the evil and creepy Jim is very unsettling and apparently so realistic, the real Christy Martin said she couldn’t be on the “Christy” film set when Foster was there because his depiction was so similar to the real person. (The real Christy Martin has a cameo in the film, as a hallway bystander who wishes Christy good luck on the way to a boxing match.)

Sweeney’s portrayal of Christy has a lot of grit and effective emotional moments. The boxing matches and the training are shown as “checklist” events in her life, rather than immersive cinematic experiences. Because Christy wins so many of her matches (often by knockouts), the movie’s only real suspense in her fights is for a 2003 boxing match when Christy fights Laila Ali (played by Naomi Graham), who is younger, taller and physically stronger than Christy. It’s the only boxing match in the movie where Christy genuinely is afraid and reluctant, but Jim pushes her into it because they need the money.

The boxing matches in the movie are adequately filmed. However, “Christy” is not convincing that Christy has changed much physically during the more than 20 years that this story takes place. And that’s a problem for a movie about a boxer who’s supposed to go from her early 20s to her early 40s in the story.

Sweeney’s performance is skilled at showing emotions but not very skilled in showing the natural maturity that takes place when most people evolve from their 20s to 40s. Even if Christy has some arrested development in her maturity, she was undoubtedly changed physically and emotionally because of her drug addiction, the abuse she got from her husband, and the effects of her long boxing career. However, the movie makes Christy look like she’s physically and emotionally stuck in her mid-to-late 20s. The movie could have also taken a more realistic approach in how Christy’s boxing injuries affected her.

An early scene in “Christy” is an example of the movie’s uneven filmmaking. Christy and Jim meet with notoriously flamboyant boxing promoter Don King (played by a scene-stealing Chad L. Coleman) when Christy is still an unknown boxer. Jim brings a VHS cassette tape to show some highlights of Christy’s boxing matches, but the tape doesn’t work on the VCR in Don’s office. It’s a very sitcom-type moment because the scene—especially Coleman’s performance—is played for laughs. The scene, although well-acted, sticks out like a sore thumb in this very serious movie.

Christy is able to convince Don to sign her, just by doing a few mock boxing jabs in his office. And he comes up with the idea to give her the nickname the Coal Miner’s Daughter (inspired by Loretta Lynn’s 1971 “Coal Miner’s Daughter” hit song) when Don finds out that Christy’s father really was a coal miner. It’s understandable why a movie would condense all of this in one meeting, but it all looks so fake in the way that this scene is written.

However, “Christy” does a good job of showing how someone can feel trapped in an abusive relationship, especially if the abuser has a lot of power over the abused person and isolates the abused person from loved ones. Years into the marriage, Christy asks her mother for help to get away from Jim, but her mother “gaslights” Christy by saying Christy is the problem in the marriage. Jim manipulates Joyce by convincing Joyce that Christy has become a flaky and pathological liar because Christy has a drug addiction.

Christy’s only true confidantes in the movie are Rosie (who is in and out of Christy’s life) and a boxer named Lisa Holewyne (played by Katy O’Brian), who lost to Christy in one of their high-profile boxing matches. Lisa, who is openly a lesbian, is there for Christy during the lowest point in Christy’s life. O’Brian gives a good performance, but there’s not enough shown or told about Lisa for her to be a well-rounded character in the movie.

“Christy” gives a general overview of Christy’s career and personal life in the way that a biopic tends to do when it’s limited to telling the story in a time frame that’s less than three hours. (“Christy” clocks in at 135 minutes.) The movie doesn’t give enough information about who else knew about Jim’s abuse at the time that it was happening.

Very little is depicted about how the business of women’s professional boxing evolved from the 1990s to the 2010s. There’s a scene where Christy fakes being a heavier weight by putting a lot of coins in her pockets, in her shoes, and in her underwear before she gets weighed, so that she can qualify for a boxing match for a heavier weight class. It’s hard to imagine any professional boxer being able to get away with that trick nowadays.

Because the real Christy Martin has a memoir (2022’s “Fighting for Survival: My Journey Through Boxing Fame, Abuse, Murder, and Resurrection”) and a 2021 documentary (Netflix’s “Untold: Deal With the Devil”), people who are familiar with both of these non-fiction projects will know that “Christy” leaves out a lot of information that could’ve been in the movie. (For example, the “Christy” movie doesn’t mention that Christy has gone public about being sexually abused as a child, and Jim’s longtime abuses were much worse than what’s shown in the movie.) “Christy” is worthwhile as a story of inspirational empowerment. But as a biopic, it falls a little bit on the shallow side that’s held afloat by good performances.

Black Bear Pictures will release “Christy” in U.S. cinemas on November 7, 2025. A sneak preview of the movie was shown in U.S. cinemas on October 27, 2025.

Review: ‘I Was Born This Way,’ starring Carl Bean, Billy Porter, Lady Gaga, Dionne Warwick, Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson, Estelle Brown and Martha Payne

October 31, 2025

by Carla Hay

Carl Bean in “I Was Born This Way” (Photo by Jed Alan/I Was Born This Way Production LLC)

“I Was Born This Way”

Directed by Daniel Junge and Sam Pollard

Culture Representation: The documentary film “I Was Born This Way” features a predominantly African American group of people (with a few white people) who discuss the life and career of Carl Bean, who went from being a professional singer to becoming an archbishop LGBTQ activist.

Culture Clash: Bean (who experienced racism, homophobia and sexual abuse) was often misunderstood, degraded and underestimated when fighting for causes that he advocated.

Culture Audience: “I Was Born This Way” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in documentaries about lesser-known civil rights activists from the LGBTQ community.

A 1977 promotional photo of Carl Bean in “I Was Born This Way” (Photo courtesy of I Was Born This Way Production LLC)

“I Was Born This Way” is a worthy tribute to Carl Bean, who was an archbishop, former disco singer, and overlooked pioneer in LGBTQ civil rights activism. The documentary’s old interviews with Bean (who died in 2021) and others make it look a bit outdated. These interviews don’t lessen the film’s intentions or the quality of the stories told in the documentary, but “I Was Born This Way” gives the impression that the filmmakers didn’t get more recent interviews before this documentary was released in 2025.

Directed by Daniel Junge and Sam Pollard, “I Was Born This Way” had its world premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. Bean sat down for an exclusive interview for the documentary, which uses his storytelling as the driving narrative. Several other people who knew Bean and/or were influenced by him are also interviewed for “I Was Born This Way.”

Bean (who is quite a raconteur in this documentary) died of a prolonged undisclosed illness on September 7, 2021. He was 77. Throughout the documentary there is animation showing re-enactments of the stories that Bean and other people tell because many of the stories don’t have enough photos or other archival footage to serve as visual demonstrations. The animation (which is competently made and has some melodramatic moments) might get various reactions from viewers, since this animation takes up a great deal of screen time in the documentary.

The documentary “I Was Born This Way” begins by showing Billy Porter arriving at the home of Chris Jones, who is an archivist of recordings that Bean did when he was a disco/R&B singer in the 1970s. Chris Jones is the son of the late Bunny Jones, who co-wrote Bean’s most famous song: 1977’s “Born This Way.” Porter and Chris Jones meet each other for the first time and greet each other warmly.

Why is Porter at Chris Jones’ home? The documentary shows Porter there to hear unreleased recordings made by Bean and look at some rare memorabilia of Bean. Porter comments in the documentary, “I’m excited to hold history in my hands. This song [‘Born This Way’] was very important … for little gay boys like me.” Much later in the documentary, Porter is seen re-recording the Bean song “Liberation,” a song that was supposed to be the B-side to “Born This Way” but was unreleased because the lyrics to “Liberation” were considered “too gay” at the time.

Grammy-winning musician and Oscar-winning director Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson has this to say about “I Was Born This Way,” when he comments on the song while looking through vinyl records at a music store: “This song was ahead of its time …. This one song started a revolution.”

In the documentary, Bean tells his life story in chronological order. He talks candidly about his troubled childhood (he grew up in Baltimore), where he survived bullying from his peers, physical abuse from his father, sexual abuse from an uncle (his father’s brother), a suicide attempt by overdosing on pills, and the traumatic aftermath of his mother’s death from a then-illegal abortion. Bean was raised by his godparents because his biological parents were too young when they became parents to Bean.

Bean says, “From a young age, I knew I was different.” He adds, “Music oozed out of me.” Bean mentions that Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers (best known for the 1956 hit “Why Do Fools Fall in Love”) had a tremendous influence on him to want to become a professional singer. Bean also says that when he was a child, he was sexually abused “too many times to count.” Bean says when he told his father about the sexual abuse, his father severely punished him. During Bean’s childhood and for much of his life, Bean says he was plagued by frequent nightmares of being chased by a phantom.

Bean’s sister Martha Payne, who says Bean’s childhood nickname was Sammy, has this description of what Bean was like as a child: “He liked doll houses, cheerleading, baton twirling. He never pretended to be anything other than he was.” When Bean was bullied by his peers, Payne says that he took it in stride. “When he was singing, he was at his happiest.”

As a teenager, his suicide attempt led to him being put in a psychiatric ward at a hospital, where his mother happened to work as a custodian. Bean remembers his mother assuring him during this hospital stay that there were other queer kids who existed too. She encouraged him to become a singer.

After he was discharged from the hospital, he went to live with his mother, who had two other kids living with her. Bean says this change in his living situation meant that his socioeconomic status went from “middle-class to working-class poor.” While living with his mother, Bean says he got to know a lot of gay and transgender hustlers and sex workers, who accepted him and made him feel like he was part of a community.

Sadly, tragedy struck when his mother died of an illegal abortion. And to add to this devastating loss, Bean says he was forced to testify against the nurse who administered this abortion when the nurse went on trial for murder. Bean moved to New York City after the trial ended.

The middle of the movie chronicles Bean’s up-and-down journey through the music business. After moving to New York City, he became a gospel singer in Harlem’s Christian Tabernacle Choir. Dionne Warwick, Cissy Houston and Estelle Brown were his mentors at the time. Warwick and Brown are interviewed in the documentary.

Warwick says she was impressed very early on with Bean: “He had an incredible voice.” Brown says, “I learned a lot from Carl regarding homosexuality.” Brown, who was a member of the gospel group the Sweet Inspirations, mentions that she was a closeted lesbian for most of her life, but her friendship with Bean helped her to eventually come out and live openly as a lesbian.

According to Bean, he got tired of his hard-partying lifestyle in New York City, so he relocated to Los Angeles in the mid-1970s. He also took his music in secular direction by deciding to perform R&B and later disco. Bean formed a band called Carl Bean and Universal Love, where he was the lead singer. And although the band was signed to ABC Records, which released the band’s 1974 album “Universal Love”), the band couldn’t break through to widespread commercial success. Universal Love drummer Royal Anderson is one of the people interviewed in the documentary

Bean then launched a solo career as a Motown Records artist during the disco craze of the late 1970s. “I Was Born This Way” (written by Chris Spierer and Bunny Jones) was originally recorded by singer Valentino in 1975. Bean’s 1977 version of the song, which was a hit on the disco charts, stood the test of time longer. Bean is the singer who is more likely to be associated with “I Was Born This Way,” which is credited with being the first gay anthem to become a mainstream hit. In the documentary, Iris Gordy—a former Motown Records executive and a niece of Motown founder Berry Gordy—makes brief comments about Bean and “I Was Born This Way.”

Why was “Born This Way” co-written by a woman who identified as heterosexual? Chris Jones explains in the documentary that his mother Bunny Jones had a hair salon and knew a lot of gay/queer people because of the salon. Fun fact: Bunny Jones was the first black woman to own a nationally prominent recording studio in the United States: She founded Astral recording studio in 1971, in New York City’s East Harlem district. Bunny Jones also founded Gaiee Records, which released Valentino’s version of “I Was Born This Way,” and she subsequently sold Gaiee to Motown.

Disco’s popularity, like Bean’s music career, eventually faded. He then made a career transition to being a full-time LGBTQ activist. In 1985, he founded the Minority AIDS Project as a way to help people of color during the AIDS crises. And in response to seeing many LGBTQ people being shunned and bullied by church communities, Bean founded his own queer-friendly ministry— Unity Fellowship Church—and became an archbishop. Unity Fellowship Church, which began in Los Angeles, has expanded its congregations to other U.S. cities.

Lady Gaga gives an emotionally candid interview in the documentary about how her hit song “Born This Way” (the title track of her 2011 second album) was directly influenced by Bean’s version of “I Was Born This Way.” She admits that she didn’t know much about Bean when she first heard the song. Lady Gaga (who is an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ people) comments, “When I learned about what Carl did not just as a singer but as an activist, it made my heart explode.”

The most meaningful parts of the documentary aren’t about the glitz and glamour of showbiz but about how Bean took his pain as an abuse survivor and channeled it into many positive things in his life, including helping people who are often mistreated, abused or neglected. The documentary includes footage of Ben doing some of this activism, as well as his interactions with his vibrant Unity Fellowship Church congregation. Bean’s close confidant Rev. Dr. Russell E. Thornhill is interviewed in the documentary.

Although the documentary shows Bean going into details about many aspects of his life, he doesn’t reveal anything much his love life except to say that he’s gay. Bean briefly mentions he’s been been heartbroken many times, but he doesn’t go into specifics. He takes the same approach about his health issues. Ultimately, “I Was Born This Way” did not have to be a “tell-all” documentary. The movie capably shows that Bean left a very admirable and impactful legacy that changed many people’s lives for the better.

Jungefilm released “I Was Born This Way” in Los Angeles on October 30, 2025.

Review: ‘Blue Moon’ (2025), starring Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale and Andrew Scott

October 26, 2205

by Carla Hay

Margaret Qualley and Ethan Hawke in “Blue Moon” (Photo by Sabrina Lantos/Sony Pictures Classics)

“Blue Moon” (2025)

Directed by Richard Linklater

Culture Representation: Taking place in New York City on March 31, 1943, the dramatic film “Blue Moon” (based on real letters written between Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart and an unidentified young woman) features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Lorenz Hart experiences highs and lows on the night that his former songwriting partner Richard Rodgers has immediate success with the musical “Oklahoma!,” while a young woman, whom Hart is infatuated with, tells him how she feels about their relationship.

Culture Audience: “Blue Moon” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, filmmaker Richard Linklater, Broadway artists of the 20th century, and well-acted movies about artists who have to come to terms with being past their prime.

Andrew Scott and and Ethan Hawke in “Blue Moon” (Photo by Sabrina Lantos/Sony Pictures Classics)

“Blue Moon” is an exquisite, bittersweet drama about a night in the life of Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart in 1943, when his career and personal life were in a downward spiral. Ethan Hawke gives an outstanding performance in this gem of a movie. “Blue Moon” (which takes place in mostly one location) could easily have been a stage play, but there are cinematic touches and visuals that make this story a much richer experience as a movie.

Directed by Richard Linklater and written by Robert Kaplow, “Blue Moon” had its world premiere at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival, where “Blue Moon” co-star Andrew Scott (who plays Richard Rodgers in the movie) won the prize for Best Supporting Performance. “Blue Moon” subsequently screened at other film festivals in 2025, including the Telluride Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival.

“Blue Moon” takes place in New York City, on the night of March 31, 1943. The movie was actually filmed in Ireland. Although the “Blue Moon” screenplay is an original screenplay, it’s inspired by real-life letters that Hart wrote to an unidentified woman, whose first name was Elizabeth, when he was in his late 40s and she was in her early 20s. For the purposes of this review, the real people are referred to by their last names, while the characters in the movie are referred to by their first names.

Before the main story begins, “Blue Moon” opens with a flash-forward to November 1943, when an inebriated Lorenz “Larry” Hart (played by Ethan Hawke) is seen stumbling in a dark alley on a rainy night. As he lies down on the ground, a voiceover narration of a news radio report says that he died of pneumonia. It’s implied that he caught pneumonia from being out on this rainy night. (In real life, Hart died of pneumonia on November 22, 1943. He was 48.)

A caption on screen then shows what happened to Lorenz seven months earlier, on the night of March 31, 1943. It’s the opening night of the Broadway musical “Oklahoma!,” the first project from Lorenz’s estranged songwriting partner Richard “Dick” Rodgers (played by Scott) since Richard temporarily parted ways with Lorenz. Richard, who is a music composer, has a new lyricist for a songwriting partner—Oscar Hammerstein (played by Simon Delaney)—who is his collaborator on “Oklahoma!” The duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein would go on to become the most successful Broadway musical songwriting duo of all time, with hits such as “Oklahoma!,” “The Sound of Music,” The King and I,” “South Pacific” and “Carousel.”

Conversations in “Blue Moon” later reveal that Richard parted ways with Lorenz because Richard grew tired of Lorenz being unreliable and erratic, due to Lorenz’s alcoholism. Richard now wants a songwriting partner who’s able to work during regular office hours and whom he doesn’t have to worry about going missing for days at a time. The end of the partnership wasn’t completely permanent or entirely bitter—in real life, Rodgers and Hart resumed working together until Hart’s death—but this separation didn’t go as smoothly as Lorenz would like people to think it did.

Before the end of the partnership between Richard and Lorenz, they worked together for about 25 years and had Broadway musical hits such as “Pal Joey,” “The Boys from Syracuse,” “Babes in Arms” and “On Your Toes.” The Rodgers/Hart collaboration also resulted in classic songs such as “My Funny Valentine,” “Isn’t It Romantic?,” “With a Song in My Heart,” “The Lady Is a Tramp,” “Where or When,” “My Heart Stood Still,” “Manhattan,” “Bewitched,” “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was” and “Blue Moon.” As time went on, it became apparent that the former duo also separated because of artistic differences. Lorenz prefers satire that could be controversial, while Richard wants to do more earnest and mainstream musicals.

Lorenz and Richard also have different lifestyles. Lorenz is a never-married bachelor who has no children, lives with his mother, and loves to party all night, with no strict work schedule. Richard is a married father who prefers to have a consistent work schedule during the day.

Lorenz’s sexuality is not explicitly identified in the movie, just like it wasn’t in real life. However, in the movie, Lorenz essentially says that he’s not heterosexual when he openly declares that he’s attracted to beauty, regardless of gender. His short height (reportedly about 5 feet tall) and vague sexual identity no doubt affected his love life.

On the night of “Oklahoma!’s” Broadway opening, Lorenz is sitting in a balcony of the St. James Theatre with his mother Frieda Hart (played by Anne Brogan) as they watch the show. Lorenz pretends to be enjoying himself, but he’s actually miserable when he’s watching this musical. (“Oklahoma!,” based on Lynn Riggs’ 1931 play “Green Grow the Lilacs,” is a love story set in 1906 Oklahoma, before it became a U.S. state.) Before the show ends, Lorenz excuses himself and heads over to Sardi’s, a restaurant/bar that is famous for being a hangout for people who work in theatrical stage productions. The rest of the movie’s story takes place at Sardi’s.

When Lorenz arrives at Sardi’s, the place is almost empty because it’s implied that almost everyone who’s anybody in Broadway is at the St. James Theatre for the “Oklahoma!” opening-night performance. Sardi’s will eventually fill up with people arriving from the performance, including Richard and Oscar. But before that happens, Lorenz goes on rants to anyone who’ll listen about how much he thinks “Oklahoma!” is a trite and hollow sell-out of a musical.

Lorenz says about “Oklahoma!” in one of this intellectual tirades: “The show is fraudulent on every possible level.” Lorenz admits that “Oklahoma!” is going to be a smash hit, but he also says he wouldn’t want to be associated with writing such a creatively weak musical. Lorenz says haughtily, “‘Oklahoma!’ is nostalgic for a world that never existed.” Lorenz also expresses annoyance that the musical’s title has an exclamation point at the end.

At this point in the night, the only people who are actually listening to Lorenz’s pretentious and sarcastic ramblings are bartender Eddie Barcadi (played by Bobby Cannavale) and piano player Morty “Knuckles” Rifkin (played by Jonah Lees), who is an aspiring musical composer. Morty uses the stage name Morty Rafferty and wants to meet Richard. During the course of the night, Lorenz gets a rude awakening that people would rather talk to Richard than talk to Lorenz.

Congratulations bouquets and vases of flowers start arriving at Sardi’s for the “Oklahoma!” creators. Lorenz somewhat flirts with the flower delivery guy named Troy (played by Giles Surridge), but Lorenz says Troy looks like he’s named Sven, so Lorenz calls him Sven. Lorenz invites Troy/Sven to a party that Lorenz says he’s having at his home that night. Troy/Sven thanks Lorenz for the invitation but says it in a way that indicates that this delivery guy is just being polite and has no intention of going to this party, where Lorenz would probably flirt with him some more.

There’s someone else who actually preoccupying 47-year-old Lorenz’s thoughts as his current “love interest.” Elizabeth Weiland (played by Margaret Qualley) is a 20-year-old statuesque blonde beauty, who is a sophomore at the Yale School of Fine Arts. Elizabeth is an aspiring actress whom Lorenz has been mentoring, and she is expected to meet up with Lorenz at Sardi’s later that night. Lorenz is completely infatuated with Elizabeth, but their relationship is strictly platonic. Lorenz tells bartender Eddie that his relationship with Elizabeth is “beyond sex.”

“I’m ambisexual,” Lorenz jokes to Eddie. “I can jerk off easily to either hand. But to be a writer, you have to be omnisexual. How can you give birth to the whole chorus of the world if the whole chorus of the world isn’t already deep inside you?” Lorenz also mentions that he likes to call Elizabeth “my irreplaceable Elizabeth.” Lorenz says he’s aware that Elizabeth’s mother (who might accompany Elizabeth to Sardi’s on this night) doesn’t approve and is suspicious of his relationship with Elizabeth.

A writer named E.B. White (played by Patrick Kennedy), who is at Sardi’s by himself, gets pulled into Lorenz’s conversation at the bar when Lorenz starts talking to him. Elizabeth, Richard and Oscar all eventually show up at Sardi’s. Lorenz’s attitude toward “Oklahoma!” then goes from scathing to praising, as he effusively compliments Richard and Oscar on their first musical together. It’s all a showbiz fakery game because Lorenz wants to work with Richard again to revive their musical “A Connecticut Yankee” with four or five new songs written by Lorenz and Richard.

“Blue Moon” is very effective in showing how Lorenz’s alcohol-fueled cockiness is a mask for his insecurities. These insecurities are like open wounds that get further exacerbated when he sees how his value as an artist is diminished, now that he is no longer Richard’s songwriting partner. Katherine greatly admires Lorenz. But is this adoration based on real friendship or social climbing? It’s impossible for Lorenz not to notice that Katherine eagerly reminds him that she wants Lorenz to introduce her to Richard.

To achieve the illusion that Lorenz is shorter than everyone else in the room, Hawke is often seen only from the waist up or sitting down. He also wore oversized costumes, and some of the production design is oversized. The makeup and hairstyling for the Lorenz character are fairly adequate, but the skull cap that Hawke wears in “Blue Moon” (to create the illusion of baldness) is very noticeable, especially if “Blue Moon” is seen on a big-enough screen.

Hawke’s captivating performance is really what matters more than how much he might or might not physically resemble Hart in the movie. Scott (who is British in real life) is also exemplary as Richard and has a pitch-perfect New York accent in his performance. Qualley does well in her role, but there’s not too much depth to the character of Katherine. Katherine’s biggest scene in the movie is when she tells Lorenz a long-winded story about being rejected by a Yale student she has a crush on named Cooper, who cut off contact with Katherine after she had a one-night stand with him. It’s in this scene that Katherine clearly states what type of relationship she wants with Lorenz.

“Blue Moon” has the benefit of a very talented cast, a fantastic screenplay and skillful direction. The movie’s heart and soul of “Blue Moon” can be found in Hawke’s performance. People who have no interest in 1940s American showbiz might have trouble connecting to this movie. The language and acting styles in “Blue Moon” are so indicative of the times, it’s like being transported back to the era in which the movie takes place. You don’t have to be a Broadway musical enthusiast to be impressed with “Blue Moon,” which is essentially about how self-destructive tendencies and showbiz fickleness can turn a celebrated star into a fading has-been.

Sony Pictures Classics released “Blue Moon” in select U.S. cinemas on October 17, 2025, with an expansion to more U.S. cinemas on October 24, 2025.

Review: ‘Peter Hujar’s Day,’ starring Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall

October 23, 2025

by Carla Hay

Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall in “Peter Hujar’s Day” (Photo courtesy of Janus Films and Sideshow)

“Peter Hujar’s Day”

Directed by Ira Sachs

Culture Representation: Taking place in New York City, on December 19, 1974, the dramatic film “Peter Hujar’s Day” (based on a real-life audio-recorded interview) features an all-white cast of characters representing the middle-class.

Culture Clash: In an interview recorded on reel-to-reel tape, photographer Peter Hujar tells writer Linda Rosencrantz what he did the day before.

Culture Audience: “Peter Hujar’s Day” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, photographer Peter Hujar, and movies about people in New York City’s artistic scene in the 1970s.

Rebecca Hall and Ben Whishaw in “Peter Hujar’s Day” (Photo courtesy of Janus Films and Sideshow)

“Peter Hujar’s Day” has a compelling depiction of a real-life 1974 interview between photographer Peter Hujar and writer Linda Rosenkrantz. It’s a ‘slice of life’ film about a conversation that might not hold everyone’s interest, even with good acting. Viewers who are most likely to enjoy the movie are those who want to get a re-enacted peek into a day in the life of a New York City-based portrait photographer who blurred the lines between mainstream and underground. (Hujar died of AIDS in 1987. He was 53.)

Written and directed by Ira Sachs, “Peter Hujar’s Day” had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and made the rounds at other film festivals in 2025, such as the Berlin International Film Festival, the New York Film Festival and the Rome Film Festival. The movie takes place in only one location (the apartment building where Hujar lived in Manhattan’s East Village) and has only two people who are shown speaking in the entire movie: Peter Hujar (played by Ben Whishaw) and Linda Rosenkrantz (played by Rebecca Hall). For the purposes of this review, the real people will be referred to by their last names, while the characters in the movie will be referred to by their first names.

“Peter Hujar’s Day” clocks in at 76 minutes, which is the right amount of time for the type of conversation portrayed in the movie. Anything longer than 90 minutes for this movie would test the patience of most viewers, because a great deal of “Peter Hujar’s Day” consists of stream-of-consciousness rambling. “Peter Hujar’s Day” writer/director Sachs originally conceived the movie as a short film. And at times, it’s easy to wonder if “Peter Hujar’s Day” would’ve been better as a short film, as Peter tends to drone on and on about things that are quite trivial and would interest only a very specific and niche audience.

An opening caption explains that the interview took place on December 19, 1974, for a book that Rosenkrantz was writing but which never got published. She recorded the interview on a reel-to-reel tape. The dialogue in the movie is based on this audio recording, which wasn’t discovered until 2019.

“Peter Hujar’s Day” is made to look like this interview was filmed in 1974. The footage has a grainy Super 8mm quality and aspect ratio that would’ve been used in the mid-1970s. Peter and Linda talk mostly inside his apartment unit, but some of their conversation takes place on the roof of the apartment building, located above the Eden Theater. Fun fact: In 1974, Hujar was living and working in a loft where actor/singer Jackie Curtis (an occasional drag queen) used to live.

The interview is more like a casual conversation. Linda doesn’t have a prepared list of questions for this interview. Her follow-up questions are based on whatever Peter says. Peter is asked to describe what he did the day before. His response is a steady flow of comments and descriptions—sometimes wryly observant, sometimes gossipy, sometimes vulnerable.

At this point in his career, Hujar (whose specialty was portrait photos using black-and-white film) is getting assignments from mainstream publications, such as The New York Times and Elle, but he was still doing his own edgy photos that are displayed in galleries. Openly gay Hujar often featured homoeroticism in his photographs. Hujar’s work inspired the work of photographers David Wojnarowicz and Robert Mapplethorpe. Wojnarowicz was an ex-over of Hujar’s who became Hujar’s protégé.

In “Peter Hujar’s Day,” Peter admits he has a habit of name-dropping, although he dislikes it when other people name drop. He name drops writer Susan Sontag when he talks about someone he knows who wanted Max Kozloff (who was an editor at Artforum at the time) to write a book introduction. Peter says he told the person seeking Kozloff’s contact information: “I don’t know Max Kozloff. Why don’t you ask Susan Sontag?”

Peter also dishes some details about how famed poet Allen Ginsberg acted when Peter went to Ginsberg’s apartment to photograph Ginsberg for a New York Times feature article. Peter tells Linda that he was shocked that Ginsberg lived a dumpy apartment that looked like it belonged in a “run-down tenement,” linoleum floors and all. According to Peter, he and Ginsberg did not get off to a great start because Ginsberg didn’t know and didn’t want the photos to be portrait-styled.

After some back-and-forth arguing, where Peter says he told Ginsberg that The New York Times gave a non-negotiable assignment to take portrait photos, Ginsberg eventually relented and agreed to pose for portrait photos. According to Peter, Ginsberg relaxed a little during the photo session. During his conversation with Ginbserg, Peter said Ginsberg advised Peter that if Peter ever got to photograph writer William Burroughs, then Peter should give Burroughs oral sex, even though Ginsberg supposedly said that Burroughs preferred “WASP-y prep school boys.”

Peter’s surprise about Ginsberg’s living conditions is an example of how many celebrated artists of that era were not doing well financially. Peter gives insight into why, when he admits to Linda that he—like many artists—cannot be business-savvy at all. Peter says he often doesn’t keep track of how much he’s supposed to paid for assignments, or even if he’s been paid at all.

Peter also says it’s not uncommon for him to give his photos and negatives to a stranger who shows up at his apartment and says they’re from the media outlet that gave him the assignment, but Peter doesn’t verify who that person is when he hands over these items. He mentions this after saying that a girl from Elle is supposed to come over to his place to pick up some photos, and he wonders out loud what it would be like if she seduced him.

Even though Linda does not approach the interview as an intense interrogator, she doesn’t let Peter’s inconsistencies and contradictions slide. Throughout this interview, Peter occasionally admits that he what he’s saying might not be entirely true. He’s a raconteur who’s an unreliable narrator.

He also makes catty remarks about colleagues, such as saying that artist Ed Baynard has a tendency to be long-winded and is “insane” for how long Baynard keeps people on the phone. In another comment, he remarks that model Lauren Hutton is “beautiful” but “looks like a man.” In other comments, he speculates about who might be sleeping with whom in his community of New York queer artists who are getting international recognition.

Whishaw gives an impressive performance as Peter, who is quite the motormouth and who doesn’t know the meaning of “less is more” when talking about himself. Hall’s performance as Linda is much more measured and calmer, since Linda’s role is mainly to listen to Peter talk about whatever he wants. Aside from a few artsy interlude shots that look like Peter and Linda are posing for dream-like portraits, “Peter Hujar’s Day” is really a filmed conversation. Whether not a viewer will feel curious or checked-out of this conversation will depend entirely on a viewer’s regard for New York artists in the 1970s.

Janus Films and Sideshow will release “Peter Hujar’s Day” in select U.S. cinemas on November 7, 2025.

Review: ‘The Hand That Rocks the Cradle’ (2025), starring Maika Monroe, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Raúl Castillo, Mileiah Vega and Martin Starr

October 22, 2025

by Carla Hay

Maika Monroe in “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” (Photo by Suzanne Tenner/20th Century Studios/Hulu)

“The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” (2025)

Directed by Michelle Garza Cervera

Some language in Spanish with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Los Angeles, the horror film “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” (a remake of the 1992 movie of the same name) features a predominantly white and Latin cast of characters (with a few Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A mysterious woman becomes the nanny for a married couple with two children under the age of 11, but the nanny has a deadly agenda.

Culture Audience: “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, the 1992 movie “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,” and psychological thrillers that are slow-paced and have very little creativity.

Maika Monroe and Mary Elizabeth Winstead in “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” (Photo by Suzanne Tenner/20th Century Studios/Hulu)

The 2025 version of “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” is an example of a movie that didn’t need to exist. This dull re-imagining of 1992’s campy “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” is more sluggish than scary. The effect of watching this revamped movie about a killer nanny is like falling asleep in a cradle. A plot twist can’t save this plodding and shallow dud.

Directed by Michelle Garza Cervera and written by Micah Bloomberg, the 2025 version of “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” takes place in Los Angeles, where the movie was filmed on location. The 1992 version of “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” was a crime drama directed by Curtis Hanson, written by Amanda Silver, and had Rebecca De Mornay, Annabella Sciorra and Matt McCoy in the starring roles. The 2025 version of “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” is supposed to be more of a horror movie thriller, but there are very little thrills to be had in this mopey rehash with drab cinematography and a story that takes too long to get to any horror action.

The remake of “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” begins by showing a 7-year-old blonde girl (played by Arabella Olivia Clark) staring at a house that’s directly across from her. The house is engulfed in flames and has no chance of being saved. It’s obvious that this girl will grow up to be one of the movie’s two main female characters, who are both blonde. It’s revealed later in the movie which of these characters is the adult version of the girl seen in the beginning of the movie and why the house was on fire.

The movie then fast-forwards to the present day. A blonde woman named Polly Murphy (played by Maika Monroe), who’s in her late 20s or early 30s, is being interviewed in an office by housing-rights attorney Caitlin Morales (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who is also blonde and is about 10 years older than Polly. Caitlin is also about eight or nine months pregnant at the time of this interview.

Based on the conversation, Caitlin’s law firm is currently doing an “open house” event for potential clients who have legal disputes related to housing. Polly is apparently gearing up for a legal fight with her landlord, who raised the rent to an amount that Polly can no longer afford. Polly recently lost her job as a nanny because the family who hired her has moved away. Polly thinks the rate of the landlord’s rent increase is unfair and illegal.

Polly tells Caitlin that Polly also had to drop out of a school program that trains people on early childhood education because Polly can no longer afford the tuition. Caitlin assures Polly that Caitlin’s law firm does a lot of pro bono (free) work for people who can’t afford the law firm’s services. Polly notices that Caitlin is pregnant (“You look like you’re ready to pop,” Polly says tactlessly) and asks Caitlin to consider hiring Polly as a nanny if Caitlin needs a nanny.

About six or seven months later, Caitlin’s second daughter Josie Morales (played by twins Nora Contreras and Lola Contreras) has been born. Caitlin and her husband Miguel Morales (played by Raúl Castillo) have another daughter: 10-year-old Emma Morales (played by Mileiah Vega), who is prone to having temper tantrums. Emma and Caitlin have not been getting along with each other for an unspecified period of time.

Miguel’s occupation is unclear. The husband’s job is not relevant to the story, compared to how the husband’s job was part of a plot development in the 1992 version of “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.” In both movies, the family lives in an upper-middle-class home. And whatever the household income is, the family can afford to hire a nanny. That’s what happens when Caitlin is at a farmer’s market with her kids, Caitlin sees Polly again, and Caitlin decides to hire Polly as the family’s nanny.

Polly says she’s still looking for a job, so Caitlin takes up Polly’s offer to be the family’s nanny when Caitlin sees how friendly Polly is with Josie and Emma. Polly provides a work reference to Caitlin: a woman named Rosanna (played by Shannon Cochran), who says that she used to employ Polly as a nanny. Caitlin calls Rosanna, who gives a glowing recommendation about Polly. Rosanna describes Polly as “amazing” and says about Polly: “She really became part of our family.”

The next hour of this 104-minute movie then drags with repetition. Polly secretly puts medication in food to make Caitlin, Emma and Josie sick. Caitlin (who cooks the family’s food) feels guilty because she thinks she’s being an irresponsible mother. Meanwhile, Polly earns the trust of Emma, who seems to like Polly a lot more than Emma likes Caitlin. Polly (who describes herself as being orphaned when she was a child) tells Emma that when Polly lived as a ward of the state in her childhood, she was fed only tuna and could only eat it from a tin can.

When Polly can no longer afford her rent, Caitlin invites Polly to live in the family’s guest house. Caitlin eventually gets suspicious of Polly because Polly defies Caitlin’s orders. Miguel thinks that Caitlin is being paranoid. Caitlin had some sort of nervous breakdown after Emma was born, so Miguel thinks Caitlin is experiencing something similar after the recent birth of Josie. These scenarios are presented as mostly monotonous conversations. The movie’s irritating music score by Ariel Marx sounds like it belongs in an industrial nightclub, not a movie that’s supposed to be a suspensful thriller.

Caitlin and Miguel don’t have a lot of close friends. Their closest friends (and the only friends who hang out with Caitlin and Miguel in this story) are a married couple named Stewart (played by Martin Starr) and Bethany (played by Riki Lindhome), who are a little bit snobby and pretentious. Stewart is a doctor and puts his medical knowledge to use later in the film. Miguel’s parents Javí Morales (played by Rafael Sigler) and Marta Morales (played by Elena Campbell-Martinez) are too far away to visit in person, but they are briefly seen in a video chat. Caitlin’s parents are not seen in the movie.

Early on in the movie, Polly mentions that she dates women and is currently “talking” to a woman who might end up being a love interest for Polly. Caitlin then mentions that Caitlin was dating a woman when Caitlin met Miguel. Polly says she’s not surprised because she says Caitlin gives off “that vibe.” Unlike the nanny in 1992 version of “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,” the nanny in the 2025 version of the movie doesn’t plan to seduce anyone to break up a marriage—even though the 2025 movie has a few tepid and unconvincing attempts to make it look like there’s sexual tension between Polly and Caitlin.

Later, Polly invites her “friend” Amelia (played by Yvette Lu) over as Polly’s date when the family is having a small dinner party. After the party, Caitlin sees Polly having sex with Amelia in Polly’s bedroom and watches them through a window. Polly notices that Caitlin is watching and somewhat smirks. What does this sex scene have to do with the main story? Absolutely nothing. It’s just an example of how this dreadful movie has time-wasting scenes.

Another queerness scene that has no bearing on the plot is when Emma comes out as a lesbian to her parents while they are having a family dinner. Caitlin gets upset because she thinks Emma is too young to know what Emma’s sexual identity is. That’s about all you’ll learn about Emma, who is very underwritten as a character. Even though Caitlin is queer herself, Caitlin blames Polly for trying to influence Emma into prematurely declaring Emma’s lesbian identity. This movie has a misguided way of trying to make queerness look “provocative,” and queerness is misused as an irrelevant distraction in this movie’s boring plot.

In “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,” the nanny has a secret motive for wanting to be the family’s nanny. This version of “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” doesn’t reveal that motive until the last third of the movie. The 1992 version of the movie had a family-employed handyman named Solomon (played by Ernie Hudson), who figures out before the family does that the nanny is devious. There is no handyman character in the 2025 version of the movie, but it’s not really spoiler information to say that Stewart has the role of the person who is the first one to find out some damning information about the nanny.

The movie’s screenplay is so lackluster, most of the cast members of 2025’s “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” just seem like they’re sleepwalking through their roles. Monroe has a vacant stare for most of her performance and acts more like someone who’s spaced out on painkillers instead of someone who should be laser-focused on causing havoc through a revenge scheme. Worst of all: These characters are so underdeveloped, by the time the mayhem starts and concludes in a very stereotypical way, most viewers won’t really care about seeing these characters again after the movie ends.

Hulu premiered “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” on October 22, 2025.

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