Despite what so many people think, Hanukkah is not “Jewish Christmas.”
Many years, it doesn’t even fall at the same time as Christmas. Oh, sure, it’s usually within the same month. But it’s not uncommon for Hanukkah to be over days, or even weeks, before December 24.
In fact, there’s an old joke that you shouldn’t ask a Jewish person when Hanukkah is because we don’t even know the answer, and we’ll just have to Google it. There’s a lot of truth to that.
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If you’re like me, and you never did get around to seeing the recent Tony Award-winning revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along, or you did see it and you wish you could see it again (and again), director Maria Friedman has given audiences a time machine that goes right back to the Hudson Theatre, preserving her buzzy Broadway production for future generations.
Friedman, a British actress and director making her cinematic debut, didn’t just park a camera in the aisle during an actual performance. Rather, she’s produced a film that’s a bit of a hybrid, one that effectively captures the electricity of live theater and gives you the kind of intimacy you can’t quite get even from the best seats in the house. Yes, that means the film is stagey. But that’s exactly the point.
Merrily is in theaters now as a special-event release, and for musical-theater fans, it’s a genuine holiday gift.
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I need to shut off my dad’s cell phone.
Of all the accounts I’ve closed and the memberships I’ve terminated in the last year since he died (and since my mother sold their house and moved to New York), the one that’s still active is the one for his cell phone. In fact, the phone is still in my apartment, on my dresser, fully charged.
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Three films into the Knives Out series and Rian Johnson still isn’t bored with his own funhouse — and neither am I. Each entry in the Agatha Christie–inspired franchise has told a different story with a different cast and setting, but they’ve all been mainstream crowd-pleasers that feel intelligently crafted rather than assembled by an algorithm, the rare series where “new installment” means “new flavor” instead of “same meal reheated.”
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery keeps that streak alive. It’s not as bright and cameo-filled as 2022’s Greek island–set Glass Onion was. But it’s sharper and more self-possessed than the original Knives Out was.
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2025 has not been an easy year. I’ve spent much of it mourning my father, continuing to call for the return of the hostages that are/were still held captive in Gaza, absorbing the news of rising antisemitism all around the world, and trying to make sense of the increasingly tense and divided political scene here in the U.S.
That said, I’ve also spent a bit of time trying to get back to whatever “normal” is these days. Doing that meant going on a proper vacation for the first time since before Covid (yes, really), getting back into the routine of seeing (and reviewing) movies, and spending more time in Boston again than in Florida. It’s given me a lot of time to appreciate what I’d de-prioritized in recent years and how I enjoy spending my time.
One lesson my dad always taught me was to have perspective and to be grateful for what you have, rather than dwelling on the negative. So, in that spirit, here (in no particular order) is a list of some of the people, places, and things that I’m grateful for in 2025. A big thank you to all of them.
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Thanksgiving is this week. Typically, it’s a time to show gratitude for the people, places, and things that bring value to your life. And I’ll do that.
Later.
But as I reflect on the year since last Thanksgiving, during which my father died and the war in Gaza continued and the wildfire of antisemitism spread even faster around the world and things in the U.S. got even more tense and divided, it’s worth noting that there is plenty I’m not grateful for.
So, in that spirit, and in no particular order, here are some of those people, places, and things I’m giving no thanks to this year.
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George Clooney swears he’s not playing himself in Jay Kelly. But it’s hard to see where the actor ends and the role begins.
Directed by Noah Baumbach (While We’re Young), who wrote the screenplay with Emily Mortimer (Lars and the Real Girl, The Newsroom), the film is very much a star vehicle that knows it’s a star vehicle. It’s definitely entertaining and attractive to look at. But it treads familiar territory in that it tells the clichéd story of a character who realizes they’ve put their career before their friends and family, and who tries to make things right. Given who the film’s star is, that makes it a bit difficult to feel much compassion.
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With its lush cinematography, precise period details, and performances so controlled they practically scream “For your consideration,” Hamnet is one of those movies that feels engineered from the ground up to earn award consideration — if not a few little gold men themselves.
And to be fair, it is a beautiful movie. Director Chloé Zhao clearly put a lot of thought and care into the look and feel of her latest work. Every frame feels deliberately composed and drenched in a kind of quiet melancholy that fits the subject matter perfectly. (Though, some shots do appear to be lifted straight out of a Terrence Malick film.) The acting is top-notch across the board, too, with grounded, intimate performances that pull you in even when the movie itself drags.
But that’s the thing: For about three-quarters of its length, Hamnet is … a bit dull. Not offensively so, not “check your watch every 10 minutes” dull, and certainly not “to sleep, perchance to dream” dull. Just slow, restrained, and very interior. As expected.
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Heaven has a sense of humor.
That’s one of the key takeaways of Eternity, a new movie that asks the question: If you could spend your eternal afterlife in a setting of your own choosing, which one would you pick and who would you spend it with?
The film comes from the studio A24, and it is, not surprisingly, a quirky rom-com that errs not on the side of mainstream romance but on the side of offbeat comedy, packing in so many subtle jokes that you either have to be an eagle-eyed viewer or a repeat viewer so you make sure you catch them all.
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Chances are good you already know whether you’re going to see Wicked: For Good. That’s because, at this point, between the long-running Broadway show and the award-winning first film, the Wicked universe has garnered a large, devoted fanbase.
Suffice it to say, For Good arrives with some pretty high expectations and an incessant promotional campaign that has only made the movie more of a must-see for that fanbase. So, yes, maybe a review feels unnecessary.
But here we are anyway, so let’s get to it.
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Martin's Musings 