A House of Dynamite, The Naked Gun, and Train Dreams

all 2025

Three 2025 films I watched on streaming recently that couldn’t fill an entire post on their own:

1. A House of Dynamite

   Kathryn Bigelow certainly has a ‘thing,’ but she’s quite good at it. Despite myself, I admired both The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty. Her new Netflix film is just as good…maybe better. But it is still the same schtick. This time, we watch a huge ensemble spread across the country freak out in the twenty minutes between an unidentified nuclear launch and its eventual impact in the US. This requires rerunning those twenty minutes several times from different perspectives, and the way they all weave together is very nice. There is a thrilling sense of suspense and weight to the events that didn’t require me to know anything about any of the many US government agencies portrayed. Inbound nuke—got it. The film’s strongest aspect is how it is never far from everyday concerns and people. While all of the characters are government employees of one kind or another, they all have quotidian lives branching out from the main story, and these human connections—often only glimpsed—are so true and real that the danger is never flattened into an abstract movie menace talked about by angry politicians in hidden rooms. Bigelow brings up questions and issues, letting them dangle as the plot—and the missile—barrels ahead. And she knows better than to suggest answers to any of those things. She doesn’t even reassure us that there are answers. And that is the most successful type of political thriller.

2. The Naked Gun (2025)

   I am fond of saying that every genre has its masterpieces, and that even goes for stupid comedy. I have never watched one of the original Leslie Nielsen films, and I had no interest in watching this one, in which Liam Neeson plays Nielsen’s character’s son. And yet I saw so many people on Letterboxd remarking at how shockingly enjoyable the movie was. So, I gave it a shot, and I agree. The comedy is never sophisticated and sometimes stretches gags to absurd lengths…but it’s all super fun. The newly legitimized Pamela Anderson (The Last Showgirl is truly good, people) plays Neeson’s love interest, and she is especially adept at making groany punchlines land like perfect little jokes. Yes, the film does think testicles are pretty funny, but it refers to them much more sparingly than I expected. In a way, this is a more sophisticated stupid comedy. It ranked with Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank for me, or the Steve Martin classic The Jerk. Anderson steals the show (and a chair), especially in her wonderful “I love jazz” distraction scene. Just as surprisingly enjoyable as A House of Dynamite.

3. Train Dreams

   This is the only film of the three that has been granted any Oscar potential. It’s also the weakest of the three. Joel Edgerton plays Joel Edgerton as a logger whose narrated life passes before our eyes, attempting to probe the mysteries of meaning and interconnectedness. I think it fails. It’s a strange little film that includes dreams and trains—but never train dreams…so…I don’t know where that title comes from. Good actors (William H. Macy, Kerry Condon, Felicity Jones) put in good work, but the whole thing feels meaningless…which seems to be the opposite of the desired effect. A quiet, moody drama set in Washington forests, this one was quite simply not my thing. And yet, of these three, it seemed the most likely to be my thing. And I love that. It’s not about genre, but quality. And it’s shocking where you do and don’t find that elusive element.