Good media from 2025!?

I think movies today are total crapola. For me at least, English language film peaked from around 1985-2005. Plenty of great films have been released outside of that window of time of course, but nonetheless if I not only like a film but truly love it, then chances are it was released more or less in this period. Although I will say that has to do a lot with my personal tastes as well. It's been a pleasant surprise then that two pieces of media released very recently have caught my attention.

     I watched Bugonia the other day and I quite enjoyed it it. Is it a film that I love and one I'll re-watch? Probably not, but I think it will stick in my memory and not be completely forgotten within a week, the fate of most recently-made films I've seen. Great acting, great pacing, great cinematography, visuals, music and overall atmosphere. I found the first half to be thought-provoking and laden with social commentary, but not in a way that felt preachy or was annoying. My feelings for the second half are more tepid, but nonetheless the story kept me engaged. The plot centers on an economically disadvantaged man who kidnaps the CEO of a large corporation because he believes her to be an alien disguised as a human. I'd call it a thriller with drama elements, and maybe sci-fi too, maybe not (I won't spoil the ending by telling you whether or not she's actually an alien). 

     I've also started watching the new Vince Gilligan TV show everyone's talking about, Pluribus. Gilligan had previously created The X-Files, Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. All shows that I've enjoyed. That said, I didn't go into it expecting much since even works from established and well-liked creators have proven to be no exception to my general rule that everything new sucks. But thankfully this show blew away my low expectations. The first episode is fascinating but philosophically light. It gets truly interesting from episode two onward. A very thought-provoking series which has exposed unresolved tensions in my philosophy that I didn't know I had. I can't recommend this show strongly enough, even though I still haven't finished it. Even if the ending turns out to be terrible, it'd still be worth watching only based on what I've seen (I'm on episode 7 of 9). It's a sci-fi with drama and comedy elements, having that same odd and wry wit found in Gilligan's previous works. Beyond that I think you should go into this series totally blind, as it is full of surprises. 

And I do apologize that this post is so dryly written. It reads like it was written by a 50 year old film columnist from a dying newspaper, or maybe ChatGPT. You can thank my Vyvanse prescription for that.