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The Stop Button

blogging by Andrew Wickliffe

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ONESIES

22.3 Familiar Faces (Judicial Misconduct), or: Maximum Bob (1998) 3 of 7
11 April 2026
22.2 Please Clap (Big Yucks), or: Maximum Bob (1998) 2 of 7
3 April 2026
22.1 Disneyfied Misogyny (Into the Breach), or: Maximum Bob (1998) 1 of 7
25 March 2026
21.11 Maybe This Time (Is This Thing On?), or: Three's a Crowd (1984) 21+22 of 22
16 March 2026
21.10 Uncredited Cameo (Surf's Up), or: Three's a Crowd (1984) 19+20 of 22
9 March 2026

709 Meridian

Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010) audio commentary - 709 Meridian - watch-along
31 March 2026
The Adventures of Hercules (1985) audio commentary - 709 Meridian - watch-along
11 October 2025
Hercules (1983) audio commentary - 709 Meridian - watch-along
16 September 2025
Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold (1986) audio commentary - 709 Merdiian - watch-along
2 September 2025
King Solomon's Mines (1985) audio commentary - 709 Meridian - watch-along
17 August 2025

Briefly, Movies (22 March 2026)
Dolemite Is My Name (2019) D: Craig Brewer. S: Eddie Murphy, Wesley Snipes, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Keegan-Michael Key, Mike Epps, Craig Robinson, Tituss Burgess. Good, not great biopic of DOLEMITE creator Rudy Ray Moore. In traditional Karaszewski and Alexander biopic style, the movie just doesn't have a third act. Halfway through, it stops being Moore's story to focus on the DOLEMITE production and aftermath, sans a take. They maintain funny as the narrative's treading water. Murphy's singular. Great support from Randolph and Snipes.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die (2026) D: Gore Verbinski. S: Sam Rockwell, Juno Temple, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Peña, Zazie Beetz, Asim Chaudhry, Tom Taylor. Fun (thanks to the ever-reliable Rockwell) ride through a series of unfinished BLACK MIRROR pitches with a link plot. Rockwell's the link plot, Temple, Richardson, Peña and Beetz all get episodes and varying degrees of importance when everything is connected. Temple and Richardson put in more effort than the film deserves. It's an awkwardly anti-hangout hangout movie.

Heat Lightning (1934) D: Mervyn LeRoy. S: Aline MacMahon, Ann Dvorak, Preston Foster, Lyle Talbot, Glenda Farrell, Frank McHugh, Ruth Donnelly. Tough melodrama about reformed not-technically-bad-herself-but-okay-with-a-bad-boyfriend girl MacMahon contending with her past as bank robber Foster stops by her desert filling station and lunch room. Complicating matters is Dvorak as MacMahon's kid sister, who's naive enough to believe men. Great performance from MacMahon, good ones from everyone else. It's almost there.

Hedda (2025) D: Nia DaCosta. S: Tessa Thompson, Nina Hoss, Imogen Poots, Nicholas Pinnock, Tom Bateman, Finbar Lynch, Mirren Mack. Exquisitely produced and directed adaptation of the Ibsen play has Thompson using her estate's opening party to manipulate her friends and loved ones. She's just not expecting all the feelings (or all the blood). Great performances in general, Thompson, Hoss, and Pinnock in particular. The third act loses track of Thompson a little too much, but a fantastic picture.

Homicide (1991) D: David Mamet. S: Joe Mantegna, William H. Macy, Vincent Guastaferro, J.J. Johnston, Jack Wallace, Lionel Mark Smith, Rebecca Pidgeon. Rewarding disappointment about Jewish cop Mantenga getting stuck solving a murder with Israeli conspiracy implications, instead of hanging out with the boys on the guns-a-blazing manhunt. Lots going on with the film's internal politics; writer-director Mamet has moody set pieces, but not a movie. Mantegna's got some good scenes (and the film looks and sounds fantastic).

Invisible Ghost (1941) D: Joseph H. Lewis. S: Bela Lugosi, Polly Ann Young, John McGuire, Clarence Muse, George Pembroke, Betty Compson, Ernie Adams. Lugosi's pretty good in this creaky, Poverty Row old dark house programmer about a runaway wife, twin brothers, a strangler, men acting ungallantly with ladies, at least three murders, a police inspector with a fake cigar stuck in his mouth, and unintentional hypnotism. The supporting cast's mostly okay. The lack of personality (and universally wanting sets) weighs it down.

Okja (2017) D: Bong Joon Ho. S: An Seo-hyun, Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano, Steven Yeun, Jake Gyllenhaal, Giancarlo Esposito, Byun Hee-bong. Excellent mix of black comedy and kids movie about tween An, her giant super pig best friend, and evil American capitalist Swinton's bozo scheme. Along the way An meets reality TV animal doctor Gyllenhaal, and animal rights pacifist terrorist Dano. Great performances from the supporting players and the ever centered one from An. Simultaneously joyous, rending, and heartbreaking.

Set It Off (1996) D: F. Gary Gray. S: Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox, Kimberly Elise, Blair Underwood, John C. McGinley, Ella Joyce. Excellent until the third act (and then still pretty good) crime drama about four young Black women becoming to bank robbers, motivated by desperation, rage, and (for Latifah) adrenaline. The women's friends story arc loses importance way too soon (to focus on Pinkett's romance with banker Underwood), and Fox oddly doesn't get much. Often real good, with great performances.

The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976) D: John Badham. S: Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones, Richard Pryor, Rico Dawson, Sam Brison, Jophery C. Brown, Leon Wagner. Fun, usually charming look at Negro League baseball players Williams and Jones's attempt to go it on their own, away from the greedy owners. Director Badham's bad at directing the sports stuff, not really good at any of the rest, but the production values are nice. Jones is great, Williams's a fantastic lead, and the supporting cast all delivers.

The Pawnbroker (1965) D: Sidney Lumet. S: Rod Steiger, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Brock Peters, Jaime Sánchez, Thelma Oliver, Marketa Kimbrell, Juano Hernández. Relentlessly devastating character study of Holocaust survivor Steiger (in a singular performance), coping via misanthropy, who runs a pawnshop in Harlem, supporting his extended family and his lover. He starts remembering too much, partly thanks to the new employee Sánchez, who looks to him as a mentor, partly just from too much repression for too long. Excellent all around.

Briefly, Comics (22 March 2026)
Black Panther (1998) #32 [2001] W: Christopher Priest. A: Bob Almond. The art's great and the writing, when Priest takes a breath, is fine, but the issue's a rapid mess. One thread starts, then another, then another, then another. One gets resolved, another, then another starts. Instead of an erratic narrator, Priest goes with manipulative third person, getting the ducks rowed for later. It's compelling, competent, but slight.

Elise and the New Partisans (2024) OGN W: Dominique Grange. A: Jacques Tardi. Semi-autobiographical account of sixties and seventies French political activism. The titular ELISE is based on writer Grange. As an intro to French history, it'll need multiple reads; as a narrative, Grange and Tardi do a beautiful job juggling detail, information, and character. Grange and Tardi are married, so there's probably a reason ELISE holds her cigarettes that way.

Kull and the Barbarians (1975) #1 W: Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway. A: Ross Andru, Wally Wood, Marie Severin, John Severin, Gil Kane, Ernie Chan. After an editor's note explaining eventually, KULL will feature a variety of Robert E. Howard's non-CONAN characters in an anthology. Except this issue's just origin reprints. And only of KULL. It's a solid enough adaptation, if a little lethargic at times. The Severin half is the best art in the book. Then, another reprint; this one middling.

Sara (2018) TPB W: Garth Ennis. A: Steve Epting. Awesome Ennis war comic™ about a lady Russian sniper in World War II. Familiar territory for Ennis, except here he concentrates entirely on his protagonist and narrator. The book's about what makes her tick and how that ticking manifests. Gorgeous art from Epting. SARA is one of Ennis's strongest finite protagonists, her reserved, calm demeanor a wealth of character.

The Land That Time Forgot: Fearless (2025) TPB W: Mike Wolfer, Fritz Casa. A: Mike Wolfer, Mario Zimprich. Collection of two different series, both involving an original character (a renegade cavewoman who rides dinosaurs and fights the good fight), and the source novel's flying monsters. The longer story, a direct sequel to the original novel (but really a setup for a connected universe), has better art. Shorter story has better story. Neither are notable creatively, just anecdotally.

The Muppets Noir (2026) #1 WA: Roger Langridge. Delightful first issue from Langridge sets up Kermit as noir-era P.I. Flip Minnow, who's trying to find a missing dame (Miss Piggy). Langridge's art is spot on--the first few pages have a gaggle of MUPPETS cameos--but the magic's the dialogue. You can hear the Muppet Performers telling the bad jokes. Gorgeous colors from Dearbhla Kelly.

Zoot! (1992) #4 [1993] WA: Roger Langridge. Very uneven issue spends most of its pages on an absurdist lyrical piece. The writing, art, and repetition in both make a nice rhythm even though the execution's the thing. The rest of the issue, mostly featuring too short check ins on the ongoing strips. Except none of them have enough pages to really have anything going. Gorgeous art.

Zoot! (1992) #5 [1993] WA: Roger Langridge. Nice awkward in the extreme strip about an annoying guy ruining a couple's date. It's beautifully paced. Then another entry in the ongoing story--it's got some good jokes throughout but it's also unpleasantly mean-spirited at times. Maybe it'll play off. Maybe. Roger's got solo writer credit on the last feature. Some decent prose, but it's overly quirky.

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