Joey Magidson
Welcome back to my Home Movies! Today, we have three of my favorite films of 2025 hitting shelves in One Battle After Another, Roofman, and Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere. Those aren’t even the only high profile titles on the slate this week, as Wicked: For Good is coming out as well. Plus, we have four, count em, four, Criterion Collection releases. What else is there to choose from? Read on to find out…
Joey’s Top Pick
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere
I’m very disappointed in you all for not going to see Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere. Scott Cooper took the book about the making of Bruce Springsteen‘s album Nebraska and really honed in on the tale of depression within. Jeremy Allen White gave the performance of the year playing The Boss. It’s just terrific. I spoke to editor Pamela Martin here as well as producers Ellen Goldsmith-Vein and Eric Robinson here about the film, so check those conversations out. Mostly though, just give the movie a chance now, with the added bonus of my quote being on the back of the 4K/Blu-ray box art. My full on rave review out of the Telluride Film Festival here goes something like this:
Depression can cripple a person. It’s also something any of us can struggle with, whether it’s clinical and consistent, or time to time. Having the ability to talk about it and overcome it is what matters, and that is a more recent occurrence in society. That even someone like Bruce Springsteen can suffer from devastating depression at the heights of success speaks to its universality. It also provides the backbone for Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, a meditative and stunning musical biopic that’s one of the best films of the year, let alone the Telluride Film Festival (where it kicked off the fest with its world premiere), as well as, in its climax, one of the most important. The Boss’ story has the potential to save lives.
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere takes one Springsteen’s darkest and most formative moments, as well as a period of creative inflection, and crafts a portrait that’s deliberate, solemn, and positively captivating. It would have been easy, if reductive, to make a traditional biopic here. Instead, we have a moment in time that’s almost like an internal chamber piece, as Springsteen not only struggles with his demons, but struggles to even understand them, let alone fight them. Even knowing that he’ll find a light at the end of the tunnel, given how he’s thriving to this day, takes nothing away from the emotion and pain that you feel for his suffering. The acting, filmmaking, and soul of this movie all combine to take your breath away.
Recommended Movies
One Battle After Another
What still needs to be said about One Battle After Another? It’s among Paul Thomas Anderson‘s best flicks, an Oscar frontrunner, and peak cinema. Just watch it and you’ll understand just what all of the fuss is about. Look for my interviews with cinematographer Michael Bauman and editor Andy Jurgensen this week, to tie in to this home video release. My four star rave review here kicks off as follows:
If there was ever a doubt that Paul Thomas Anderson is a master filmmaker, let One Battle After Another settle that for good. This movie is a full cinematic meal, with PTA at the height of his powers. Not only is he crafting his first blockbuster sized project, he’s doing it in a way that mixes screwball comedy with timely political commentary. In lesser hands, this film could have seemed like a tonal mishmash, fusing together a thriller and a chase flick with stoner comedy moments. Instead, each element raises up the other. Anderson has crafted one of the very best pictures of the year, one that immediately enters into the conversation of his best work to date.
One Battle After Another finds PTA at his largest scale yet, though somehow also at his most entertaining as well. Despite massive stakes, a body count, and a deep rooted anger within it, you’re also constantly laughing and smiling. There are moments that are as funny as anything he’s ever done, while others are as heavy as anything he’s ever done. It’s only the rare master craftsman who can make it all seem this effortless.
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Roofman
I really enjoyed what Derek Cianfrance, Kirsten Dunst, and Channing Tatum were up to with Roofman. It’s the type of movie that doesn’t get made much anymore, which made its relative disappointment at the box office all the more of a bummer. Still, this is one to catch up on, as it has a lot to offer. My review out of the Toronto International Film Festival here began like so:
There’s an impressive mixture occurring within Roofman. Now, this is a very audience friendly crowdpleaser, overall. The thing is, there’s also a bittersweetness and melancholy that not every filmmaker would have allowed. However, in doing so, not only does Derek Cianfrance stay true to his roots, he makes an infinitely better movie out of the true story of Jeffrey Manchester than we otherwise would have gotten. In the end, it’s one of the standout titles of the Toronto International Film Festival this year.
Roofman is easily the most mainstream that Cianfrance has ever been, though anyone familiar with his work will notice the same strength of character on display. He’s fascinated by Jeffrey and, while never letting him off the hook for his actions, wants to explore the various facets of the man. It all adds up to a very satisfying cinematic experience.
Also Available This Week
Cruising (4K)
End of Watch (4K)
Fackham Hall
Lucifer: The Complete Series (TV)
Screamboat
Snakes on a Plane (4K)
Caught by the Tides
From The Criterion Collection: “In this visionary chronicle of China’s turbulent new century, acclaimed director Jia Zhang-Ke embarks on a kaleidoscopic odyssey across time and space, incorporating footage captured for his previous films into an entirely original, captivating epic. Drawing on a twenty-three-year collaboration between Jia and actors Zhao Tao and Li Zhubin, Caught by the Tides casts them as a pair of estranged lovers, tracking these characters across an increasingly alien China as they age in real time, from the dawn of the millennium to the COVID-19 era. Observing the future-shock developments transforming his country, Jia constructs a sensorially immersive, emotionally profound portrait of both a world in flux and two people navigating its uncertain currents.”
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Captain Blood
From The Criterion Collection: “With this spectacular romantic adventure, a new era of Hollywood swashbuckling was born, as was a devilishly dashing star named Errol Flynn. He brings boundless charisma to the role of an idealistic Irish physician who, declared a traitor to England and sold into slavery in the New World, takes his revenge by transforming himself into the notorious pirate Captain Blood. The groundbreaking symphonic score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, marking the emergence of the Warner Bros. music department as a vital element in the studio’s moviemaking; the spitfire chemistry between Flynn and Olivia de Havilland in the first of their iconic pairings; the rousing naval-battle finale—all come together under the expert direction of Michael Curtiz to form an exemplar of classic film craftsmanship sailing full speed ahead.”
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The Dead
From The Criterion Collection: “The elegiac last film by John Huston finds the legendary director adapting a masterly short story by his favorite writer, James Joyce, into a poignant reflection on the totality of life. During a snowy winter in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Dublin, the members of an extended family convene for a night of wine, song, and celebration—but it’s not until after the festivities that Gretta (Anjelica Huston) reveals a secret to her husband (Donal McCann) that casts the entire evening in a new light. Aglow with a mix of nostalgia and melancholy, and featuring a cast of stellar Irish actors, The Dead gracefully evokes the passage of time and the haunting power of memory.”
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Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 5
From The Criterion Collection: “Established by Martin Scorsese in 2007, The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project has maintained a fierce commitment to preserving and presenting masterpieces from around the globe, with a growing roster of more than sixty restorations of works by essential filmmakers. This collector’s set gathers four groundbreaking and innovative films, ranging from the epic to the intimate, from Algeria (Chronicle of the Years of Fire), Burkina Faso (Yam daabo), India (Kummatty), and Kazakhstan (The Fall of Otrar). Each title is a significant contribution to the art form and a window onto a cinematic tradition that international audiences previously had limited opportunities to experience.”
Stay tuned for more next week!
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