Best Movie of 2025 (?!)/A House Style of One's Own

I was going to see Marty Supreme the other day, 
. . . and then I watched a preview.

Yes, ––no.

Later a friend texted me that she'd seen it: 

"VERY bleak--Marc [her husband] walked out 2/3rds of the way through. A good ending, but not worth it."

Why would I want to watch a ruthless man claw his way toward success?  I can see that for free, every day. And they appear to have made it (for the moment). 
TOP OF THE WORLD, MA!

"Ping pong!" my sister texted me last night. "That's what makes this movie different."

Yes, I saw in the preview that the ping pong looks fierce--and beautifully shot. 
I wonder if Marty Supreme is in the lineage of On the Waterfront, and The Hustler? 
But I don't wonder enough to see it. 

Sister didn't love the movie, but she thought it was worth seeing. 
For the ping pong? 
I'm not sure: Sadly, her style of telling me about movies and books is to quote the critics. 

I have asked her to tell me what SHE thinks.
"I'm interested in YOU," I texted, "not Manohla Dargis of the NYT." 

But––maybe as she struggles to trust her intuition choosing quilt colors?––she also doesn't seem to trust her own interpretation of movies (or books). Or, she isn't interested in her opinion as much as in the pundits'? 

I don't know, but it's frustrating to me:
as with quilts, you get a repeat of someone else's ideas and aesthetics.
And I DON'T CARE.

I truly want to hear other people's raw impressions. 
They cannot be "wrong"--a cultural product filtered through you says everything about you---and if you're my friend, that's who and what I'm interested in:
your illumination of our time and place.
 
(It's like dream interpretation---it's YOUR dream, generated by you---you are the only person who has the key to unlock it, fully.)

Also, people's raw uniformed opinions can be genius, 
and/or they can be hilarious. 

Have you looked at Song Meanings, where people offer their interpretation of songs?
They're often very personal:
A lot of "This is just how my boy/girl-friend broke up with me" 
applied to every. song. ever.

So... I texted back my own movie review. . . 

I.  The Naked Gun.

Thanks for telling me about Marty S, Sister.
My favorite movie this year was the 2025 remake of The Naked Gun! 😂 A ridiculous (but smart) spoof. 

Liam Neeson (73 yo) & Pamela Anderson (57) are so *good* together, 💕you bet their characters will be happy together 
for the rest of their lives.

(Reminiscent of Myrna Loy & William Powell in The Thin Man.)


Also, amid the dumb sex and poop jokes, there’s a sophisticated satire 🧐––the bad guy is *clearly* Elon Musk—and even some witty wordplay.

And plenty of references for Boomers – – for instance,
 at the end when everything is going well, they play ENYA!
Remember her flowy songs?

Who can say where the road goes? …Where the day flows?
Only time.
And who can say if your love grows …As your heart chose?
Only time. 

––I hadn't read any reviews of The Naked Gun.
 Just now, looking for a photo to send you, I found an article  in GQ praising the movie to the skies!
My comparison to The Thin Man was spot-on. 😂

GQ says:

“It’s full of love for pulp detective stories, 
police procedurals, noir flicks, 
and hardboiled coppers—
a tough sell in the era of Defund the Police, 
and yet one it convincingly gets over the line. 

“(After all, the Naked Gun movies have never depicted law enforcement as especially competent.)”

--"Is The Naked Gun the Most Important Movie of the Year?", July 2025, Jack King, 
gq.com/story/the-naked-gun-review

The title ^ is clickbait.
The author's point is that it's a welcome revival of the laugh-out-loud (I did!) movie:
 "the shot in the arm comedic cinema needs".

I DON’T think it’s for you, Sister (like Marty Supreme is not for me), but it too is a reflection of Our Times… and unexpectedly thought-provoking! 😄

One more bit of smarts: The Naked Gun is 85 minutes!
⏰ Perfect!
The recent trend towards long running-times is often a weakness– – 
like you said, “Marty Supreme” was too long
 – – and “Wicked was TWO 🙄 too-long long movies!

(Almost worth it for Cynthia Erivo, 
but you can watch her sing Defying Gravity on YouTube.)

{END OF MY TExT} 
____________________

II. House Style Guide

I've started to format my writing differently--especially in texts--because I noticed that people don't read closely. 

(Sister for instance: I suppose because she isn't texting me because she LIKEs me, exactly, but because we're sisters.
Just as I'm frustrated by her style, I can tell she is by mine: 
sometimes it's clear she hasn't read my texts at all! 😂)

And I know my texts have been too wordy for easy reading, anyway.

(I don't expect people to read my blog closely.
If you do, thanks, and I do want to be understandable––
but I don't know who's reading, so I write to myself, as if I weren't me. )

In texts, I want to get through, specifically, to the person I'm writing to.
So I put in lots of line breaks
––like this––
and paragraphs.

Like so. 
 
I prefer lots of breaks, myself--
it's not easy to read long unbroken paragraphs. 
And I've started to use boldface and italic and emojis 👀 AND ALL-CAPS more too.
Waaay more.
Sometimes too much? Not sure--this is all evolving.

I notice that ChatGPT does all that ^ stuff too (except use CAPS-- the idea that they = yelling holds, but I never fully took that on--that usage came from gaming, and that was never my world).

And Emily Dickinson –– she used loads of dashes.

It's smart to adapt House Style, or to consider it, for changing tech (or personal preference).
We read soooo much online, right? 
I know I leap-frog there...

Oddly, reading books, I've slowed down, and I pay more attention.
When I was young, I was so eager to discover What Happened, I would read super fast and carelessly, just to find out.

Now, as an old person, I know better how most plots are going to go, so I can slow down.
Or, I'm reading nonfiction, and I want to pay attention. 
Or, I'm re-reading and paying attention to details.
I was amazed at what I'd missed in my many earlier readings of Jane Eyre and Lord of the Rings, when I'd skipped "the boring parts".

Anyway, I don't think I'm dumbing down my writing to be understandable, I'm just formatting it differently.
And sometimes, that helps me think more clearly.

Like, when I was writing geography books for teens:
I had to know Who did What so I could write declarative sentences. You couldn't say, "Constaninople fell", you had to say who felled it.
(I don't know. 'The Ottomans' is all I remember.)

Writing to Sister, I try to present clear, short thoughts.
Which means I have to know what I think.
(Also, omit needless words.)

Strunk & White, ya know--who also said,

"Be obscure clearly! Be wild of tongue in a way we can understand!"

Elements of Style ^ illustrated by Maira Kalman, who is good at painting lots of things all together, clearly:

ABOVE from mairakalman.com/the-elements-of-style

When I blog, often I don't start out knowing what I think--I discover as I go. (And often I edit the final post.)
I love that! 
But it's not texting.
________________

P.S. Do you have a favorite movie made in 2025?

Thoughts on your own House Style?