Discovered in a Livejournal

I'm not sure why I watched so few movies during this time. Maybe because of the holidays? In any event here's the short list to round out the year.

MOVIES WATCHED IN NOVEMBER

Nov 12 - Being Eddie (2025)
Follows a comprehensive look at Eddie Murphy's life and career.
Director: Angus Wall
Stars: Eddie Murphy, Dave Chappelle, Jerry Seinfeld

One of my favorite comedians, so I loved this look back on his career.


Nov 13 - Death by Lightning (2025)
Dramatizes the stranger-than-fiction true story of 20th U.S. President James Garfield, and admirer Charles Guiteau, who assassinated him.

Creator: Mike Makowsky
Stars: Matthew Macfadyen, Michael Shannon, Betty Gilpin, Bradley Whitford, Nick Offerman

It says a lot that I went to a public school named after Garfield, yet never knew much about the man. Yet I also went to one named after Edison and we were taught a lot about him. On his birthday the local power company would send full sheet cakes to every class in the school. Yellow, of course. It was as if Garfield had been forgotten.

Finally, interest in him seemed to revive. He seemed to be a good man, yet I’ve read books about Garfield with wildly different portrayals, but this series was very positive. Very well done, with some great actors. Highly recommended.


Nov 15 - Materialists (2025)
An ambitious young New York City matchmaker finds herself torn between the perfect match and her imperfect ex.
Director:Celine Song
Stars: Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, Pedro Pascal

Typical romcom with a predictable ending. Mildly entertaining.


Nov 16 - The Lost Bus (2025)
A wayward school bus driver and a dedicated school teacher battle to save 22 children from a terrifying inferno.
Director: Paul Greengrass
Stars: Matthew McConaughey, America Ferrera, Yul Vazquez

The Paradise fire was the deadliest wildfire in California’s history and mustn’t be forgotten. This shows the amazing story of the rescue of 22 children. Highly recommended.


Nov 17 - Stiller and Meara: Nothing is Lost (2025)
Follows a tribute to the comedy duo and a personal exploration by Ben Stiller into his family's legacy.
Director: Ben Stiller
Stars: Jerry Stiller, Anne Meara, Ben Stiller

I grew up watching this comedy team, so looked forward to finding out more about them. I wasn’t disappointed at this in-depth look at their lives.


MOVIES WATCHED IN DECEMBER

Dec 20 - Sunday Best: The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan (2025)
Ed Sullivan broke barriers by booking Black artists on his Sunday night variety show. This documentary spotlights the TV pioneer's legacy of equality.
Director: Sacha Jenkins
Stars: Ed Sullivan, Smokey Robinson, Berry Gordy, Harry Belafonte, Dionne Warwick

When I was a kid, Sullivan was just the emcee of a show we watched every Sunday. I never realized how much good the man did.


Dec 27 - Joyeux Noel (2005)
In December 1914, an unofficial Christmas truce on the Western Front allows soldiers from opposing sides of the First World War to gain insight into each other's way of life.
Director: Christian Carion
Stars: Diane Kruger, Benno Fürmann, Guillaume Canet, Daniel Brühl

I knew a little about the Christmas truce, but this movie brought the soldiers to life. It showed what they were going through, and how they managed to let off of their hate. Also, wonderful to have a new Christmas movie!

It’s the near future, 2025. Climate change, ignored by too many, left unaddressed or under-addressed by the world's nations, has grown worse at speeds far beyond our most dire predictions. World-wide destruction is now unstoppable. Monster storms rage across the planet, giant wildfires reduce forests, cities, and towns to ash.

In the second story, an ancient virus released from the thawing tundra lays waste to humanity.

Lonely survivors of the imagined apocalypse tell their stories of Earth’s last days.

The book is divided into two stories, both of which focus on one survivor. As far as they know, there are very few others left.

The first story Alone, takes place after a pandemic kills the vast majority of the human race. A survivor wanders through what is left. I really liked how it’s presented; there are no monsters, only a lone man trying to figure out how he’ll live out the rest of his days. With nothing but time, he creates a place for himself. Though civilization, and most of mankind, is gone, his life is still fulfilling.

The second story, Tipping Point, is more frightening. The survivor’s father tried to warn people, but was basically ignored. So he turned his efforts to making sure that he and his son would survive. Though they have tools and a safe harbor, much of the earth is dying. By the end of the story the survivor is alone. His fate is uncertain.

Both stories are haunting and well told. They’re fiction that could easily be non-fiction.

This is actually my last book review for 2025. And I managed to fulfill all my book challenges:







( Mount TBR 2025 Book Links 1-55 )

56. Quick Fixes: Tales of Repairman Jack by F. Paul Wilson
57. Followed Home (Exalls Attacks, Book 1) by Andre Gonzalez
58. The Recipe Box by Viola Shipman
59. One Day All This Will Be Yours by Adrian Tchaikovsky
60. Zoo Story: Life in the Garden of Captives by Thomas French
61. A Rip in Heaven by Jeanine Cummins
62. X Troop: The Secret Jewish Commandos of World War II by Leah Garrett
63. Strange Stories II: The Empty Earth by Roger Mannon

The acclaimed author of AMERICAN DIRT reveals the devastating effects of a shocking tragedy in this landmark true crime book: the first ever to look intimately at the experiences of both the victims and their families.

A RIP IN HEAVEN is Jeanine Cummins' story of a night in April, 1991, when her two cousins Julie and Robin Kerry, and her brother, Tom, were assaulted on the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, which spans the Mississippi River just outside of St. Louis.

When, after a harrowing ordeal, Tom managed to escape the attackers and flag down help, he thought the nightmare would soon be over. He couldn't have been more wrong. Tom, his sister Jeanine, and their entire family were just at the beginning of a horrific odyssey through the aftermath of a violent crime, a world of shocking betrayal, endless heartbreak, and utter disillusionment. It was a trial by fire from which no family member would emerge unscathed.

I can’t begin to imagine what the author and her family went through, having two members of their family murdered. But what probably made more of an impression on me is what happened afterwards. How did someone who had escaped this nightmare end up having to live through another? It says a lot, and none of it good, about our legal system.

The murder was done by four men with little or no conscience, four men who had little regard for life or the truth. But what was done to Tom afterwards was done by men who were supposed to be society’s protectors. Maybe Tom did say some things that I never would have in the same situation, but that doesn’t let the police off the hook. They lied, misled him when it came to his rights, and only stopped harassing him after the true perpetrators were practically handed to them.

Was the writer being so close to the crime a detriment when it came to telling the story? Did she bend the story too much to one side? Maybe, but I can’t say that I blame her. The men who were found guilty of her cousins’ murders did not deny most of their actions; they just blamed each other for the murders.




( Mount TBR 2025 Book Links 1-55 )

56. Quick Fixes: Tales of Repairman Jack by F. Paul Wilson
57. Followed Home (Exalls Attacks, Book 1) by Andre Gonzalez
58. The Recipe Box by Viola Shipman
59. One Day All This Will Be Yours by Adrian Tchaikovsky
60. Zoo Story: Life in the Garden of Captives by Thomas French
61. A Rip in Heaven by Jeanine Cummins