Soul Power: The Legend of the American Basketball Association

★★★★--Loved this well-done documentary about the American Basketball Association, an NBA rival with a different style of play that merged in the mid-1970s. There are many extremely engaging first‑hand accounts from figures like Julius Erving (aka Dr. J), George Gervin, Larry Brown, Artis Gilmore, St. Louis Spirits owner Daniel Silna, Dan Issel, Spencer Haywood, and Bob Costas, all of whom got their starts working for ABA franchises. Common, whose dad played in the league, narrates. Even if you know nothing about professional basketball, it's still a solid watch. 
 
Most interesting part is the business aspect, going through the successes and mistakes along the way that helped them survive and die out. A big win was that they acquired the second best player on the planet at the time, Julius Erving. He was the face of the league from 1971 to 1976. He is pretty universally considered one of the coolest people ever and was something of a proto-Michael Jordan, both on and off the court. They also nearly got the best, Kareem, but the league commissioner, George Mikan, a former pro and Republican politician, low-balled him, costing Mikan his job and probably ultimately killing the league. 
 

Erving was definitely the star of the doc, just as he was the star of the league. Dude is cool and charismatic as hell. A pretty safe choice as your marquee player, he was a black icon, but didn’t venture into racial politics, which I find disappointing but white dudes of that time were already well into that “shut up and dribble” mindset. 
 
It’s wild that the NBA still shits on this league that gave it the slam dunk contest and the three-pointer. The end talks about how the players from that league got screwed out their pensions until recently even though that was part of the agreement when the merger happened. Also, the NBA doesn’t count ABA stats, basically still arguing the league was inferior. It was not, and they even played about the same number of games each season, which makes things easy.
 
Just a couple little complaints. Something I hadn’t really noticed was the way some ABA teams made an effort to draft local college guys to boost ticket sales since people from the area were already fans of many of these guys since high school. I wish they had gone into this, but it isn’t even mentioned. It was something I noticed and then did some half-assed internet research to confirm it. There were several Indiana guys that played for the Pacers those years, guys from Notre Dame, IU, and Purdue, one from University of Evansville, and some regional players from various Michigan and Ohio schools. 
 

Another guy that stayed in the state where he was a college legend was Hall of Famer Dan Issel, who was one of the players that gets a lot of recognition in the documentary, and is still University of Kentucky’s all-time leading scorer. His three years on varsity (this was when freshmen weren’t eligible, which is stupid, this being 1967-70 were a pretty exciting time for college basketball even though those Kentucky teams always underperformed, losing in the round of 32 each of the three years he played at UK. This was during UCLA’s dominance with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor at the time) winning national player of the year in 68 and 69. Regardless, the SEC was still the conference to be in with Issel and Pete Maravich of LSU as the top two players. Maravich in just three years is still the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer with at a more-or-less untouchable 3,667 points. He averaged and incredible 44.2 per game and his pickup style game was practically made for the ABA. He was another of the league’s prime targets (which isn’t mentioned) but stayed in the NBA. 
 

Interestingly, Kentucky didn’t integrate until the year after Issel graduated. It wasn’t until he played in the ABA that he ever played with a black person. The racial aspect of the film, while interesting, was maybe a little overplayed, calling it “the first integrated workplace in the United States.” It’s not like racism wasn’t rampant then or now. 
 
The only other thing that disappointed me besides trying to keep local college players with nearby teams wasn’t a fault of the documentary. It was that more footage hasn’t survived, especially from the early years.
 
Lastly, loved that my beloved Indiana Pacers were featured. There was a great local PBS documentary about those championship teams that came out in the early 90s. My uncle played ball with two of the guys in the doc, Billy Keller (my uncle was on JV when Keller was the man there) and George McGinnis, both Indiana Mr. Basketball winners. My uncle, Bob Jones, career was sandwiched between the 1965 Washington championship led by Keller and the 1969 championship led by McGinnis. They drafted a third Washington guy in 73, a guy named Steve Downing who played at IU, but he ended up going to the NBA. Again, wished they would have focused on the local guys aspect a little more.

Scream 7 is trash

Stu, you know, this guy.

★★--Oof. This film was all-nonsense. Kevin Williamson really fell off. Here are some of the things that really stuck out as stupid from this movie… 

 

The panic room that makes no sense, they leave, and you can access through the wall. Why even have a panic room? Also, why don’t you have more guns? And why can’t you shoot for shit? Also, Joel McHale, Sidney’s husband, is the town’s sherriff, you’d think maybe he’d have the cops he works with protect his family since Ghostface is actively trying to kill them. And it has long been heavily implied that Sidney’s husband was Detective Mark Kincaid from the third movie. In maybe Scream 4 we are told that he is named Mark, but now it’s this other Mark. I guess that name isn’t off the table for ole Sid, which sort of implies that they never had a serious thing going on. Ok. 

 

Ger.

Speaking of dumb retcons, spoilers below, Matthew Lillard is back as Stu Macher, sort of. He is pretty funny and obviously having a good time. Is that a positive though? Overall, the characters in this film are bad and include all the stereotypes except athlete. Have the boyfriend. The weird boy They are played by Asa Germann and Sam Rechner and are interchangeable. The black BFF. The gay guy. The theater chick, who was the only one of them I recognized. Played Mckenna Grace from the post-covid Ghostbuster films and who was just in that Regretting You movie. And the survivor girl. They all barely have names.  

Woman that plays Sid’s daughter, Isabel May, at least looks super cute. She does look 30 though. Is 25. Her face is kind of an amalgamation of Juliet Lewis, that Linda Cardellini woman from ER and Freaks and Geeks, Alison Lohman from the aughts, Maria Bello, and some Jennifer Lawrence. 

 

Gail is still a bitch. Though now she’s traumatized. You feel sorry for her. Courteney Cox looks pretty good compared to the other last few movies. She’s crazy as fuck though and she moves like an old lady. Neve Campbell is back as Sidney nee Prescott. Everything about her character and performance were lame. And Jimmy Tatro who I still think of as the alleged dick-drawer in American Vandal is there as the dumb guy half of the standard opening kill. 

 

Camp, who seems like a real C U Next Tuesdee, talked a bunch of shit on social, saying “The boycott didn’t work. The critics hate didn’t work. The pathetic leaks didn’t work. What worked was audiences coming out and making the film a success.” I’d wait to see how long you stay in that top spot before doing a victory lap, but that’s just me though. 

 

Which brings me to the two main legacy characters from 5 and 6 that aren’t there and are never mentioned, which is super weird, while Randy’s niece, played by Jasmin Savoy Brown, and nephew, Mason Gooding, are there for reasons that make no sense. Mason is Cuba Gooding Jr.‘s kid. Jesus, he is extremely handsome, even by nepo-baby standards. He is a legit future STAR, in my opinion. I’ve been holding onto his stock since Scream 5… But it hasn’t paid out quite as much as I would have expected at this point. Maybe Heart Eyes and this will change that. Two franchises ain’t bad. Also, Hollywood isn’t forcing him on us like Austin Butler. He seems to be coming up surprisingly organically. 

Ger.

Anyway, so I guess Gooding and Brown will carry the franchise on going forward since they conveniently survived. That Melissa Barrera girl got fired because she told the truth about Israel engaging in state sanctioned terrorism. This resulted in the previously mentioned boycotts. Yeah, fuck that Camp lady. I guess Jenna Ortega is too big.

Some more shit is that when the first sort of red herring Ghostface guy gets dispatched in record time, they sure do take their time on masking the guy. When they finally do, you can see why. It was just some crazy guy.

 

They introduce AI into the plot, like someone has made an app or whatever where users can change into legacy characters. Just cheesy as shit. I briefly suspected it was Joel using the program because of their similar heights and looks and weight and what not. Not long after Stu shows back up, we get a story from a crazy guy working at the local mental hospital. I recognized him from all kinds of things from the 90s, including Dutch and Can’t Hardly Wait. He tells Sidney that Stu is alive and has amnesia. Yeah, things t’s getting crazy. But, you know, recognize that guy. So obviously he’s the killer. Or one of them. At one point, in regard to Stu possibly being alive, Randy’s niece starts talking about the rules. “Ridiculous retcon by any franchise standards,”she says. Her brother then says something like “we’re not doing the rules anymore.”

 

Lastly, the killer has unexplained super strength. Ghostface lifts some guy by the head, puts his head through a pointy tap, and then beers starts coming out of his mouth. I guess that was cool.

There is one good thing, a 15-minute stretch that is as tense as anything in the franchise. Things got a little rowdy in my theater on opening night during that run. But it didn’t last, and afterwards I heard everyone universally talking shit, even people that didn’t look like cinephiles, if you know what I mean. 

Immediately upon leaving the movie, I had it second to last. VI I had lower. But after writing about this a little bit, I now think this seventh film is the nadir. My ranking is Scream, 4, 2, the fifth one just titled Scream (2022), 3, VI, and 7. The original is a five-star movie. 4 and 2, four stars. 5 three stars. 3, VI, and 7, two stars. If it weren’t for that tense 15 minutes, this would be a one-star movie. On a related note, I’m done with this franchise. Unless the next one has insane buzz, I’m not falling for this again.

How to Make a Killing: More like How to Make a Shitty Movie

★★--Yeah, not good. In fact, bad. Cast was good. Story was dumb. Directing wasn’t great. But fine. Nothing I haven’t seen before. Based on some book from 1907 apparently. There have been like 10 adaptions or so. It’s like the Dracula/A Star is Born of whatever the fuck genre this is. 

 

Glen Powell stars as Becket Redfellow, a dude last in line for an obscene amount of family wealth. He’s basically his Chad Radwell character from Scream Queens without the support of his billionaire family. Hollywood really wants him to be a star. Sounds like George Clooney. Looks like a forgettable Hemsworth. Him and Austin Butler are the biggest Hollywood plants there are. I don’t think either one of them are real A-Listers. No Timothée Chalamet for example. This is our new dude? His stick is thin. Basically charming douchebag that wears a lot of disguises. How many fucking times can I see this and a year or so. This is the third time I’ve seen this in a year. Female lead is Margaret Qualley, who is indeed hella fine. She plays the rich bitch Becket pines over. She’s ok.

 

I used to like Ed Harris, who plays Powell’s asshole scion grandfather. I’m confident I haven’t liked him in anything in the last 20 years. Jessica Henwick, sort of recognize her from Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, plays the normal hot girl, as opposed to Qualley’s unattainable hot. Which reminds me, no idea what this movie is trying to say. Ditch the nice girl for the one that is insanely hot and exciting? Well, yeah.

 

Ger.

Rounding out the cast are Zach Woods from Silicon Valley and The Office, and Jude Law’s kid Raff. They are cousin fodder in the way of extreme wealth. Their crime was being born rich and being douchebags. Woods isn’t a deathworthy douche... Law is, though. Also get a really good two minutes out of Topher Grace. He’s another douche cousin. This one a megachurch pastor. 

 

Had decent hopes going in but was disappointed after the first 20 minutes. Directed by one John Patton Ford. His only other film is Emily the Criminal, which was halfway decent. Overall, this film is trash. Felt too long. Also crazy confusing. Not sure who the redhead guy married to Qualley’s character is or supposed to be. Also, spoiler, no idea how Powell was framed for his murder.

 

The most insane thing about the movie though is the passage of time. I was sort of thinking wow he’s really coming up in the world in the month or whatever it’s been since he killed his first cousin. Then in queue shows up for like the third time and it’s like, “remember when I saw you two years ago?” WTF? How much time has passed? Pretty sure this movie legit covers like 45 years.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die: Powder does air-guitar

★★★★--I loved this movie, though it was far from perfect. The realest, darkest comedy you’re ever gonna see, yes. But it also has a giant man-eating cat with a giraffe neck made of other living cat heads and a body of a goat that pees glitter. Yeah, when it eats, the little cat heads on the neck sort of puke out glitter. Once you get there, you realize “oh yeah we’re in a Black Mirror episode.” An AI nightmare. 
 
The person I watched this with was physically angered by this development. He said he almost walked out at that point and ultimately wished he had. “It was like a movie about AI written by AI,” he groaned. Personally, saw that as part of a long critique on the dangers of AI and a subverting what has been a cliché my entire life by making it realistic. Because we’ve all seen our fair share of AI crap in the last couple of years, we recognize a “shitty prompt” when we see one. As Michael Peña’s character says, “[AI] is gonna get so much worse,” or something like that. And elsewhere, “You’ve normalized this... You just can’t see how bad it’s gotten.”
 
Speaking of, I hate that guy. The actor. Scientologist, ya know. He was especially irritating in this… But it does have three of the most beautiful women in the world, all of whom start out at this random diner. Though it is in Los Angeles. They are Haley Lu Richardson (she’s the Florence Pugh looking young woman in the second season of White Lotus), Zazie Beetz from the second Dead Pool movie, and Juno Temple (she plays the popstar Keeley Jones in Ted Lasso). Sam Rockwell and White Lotus Florence Pugh were both great. Rockwell is on fucking fire as the Man from the Future. And unhinged. 
 

When talking about AI, the future man says shit like “There's some shit that's about to come down that I can't prepare you for. It's going to try to give you everything you ever wanted, but in the end, it will all be a lie.” And “Somewhere inside of you, you know the way things are, the way we're heading, the way people are with each other. You know the world's going to shit.” This is indeed how things feel at present. We all know this. It was nice to hear this in a creative film. Basically saying AI is super bad, but we are already fucked. No putting that genie back in the bottle. It is inevitable. Which is interesting and true, but also kind of where the film falls apart. 
 
For example, at some point it becomes clear that future man is at that diner because there is someone there he knows, which is obvious pretty early in the movie but is shown as a big reveal. However, because he knows her in the future, he doesn’t pick her until this time, the 117^th time he has tried and failed in this missing, wanting to keep her safe. If he wanted to keep her away from harm, why doesn’t he go anywhere else? One of several things that don’t make any fucking sense and make this confusing as hell. 
 

As far as the characters and the, spoiler, failed mission, I think where they made the mistake (assuming they were in reality at any point in the movie, because maybe they weren’t) was when they put the USB in the box. Was glad it was not a happy ending, because society is beyond fucked and AI fucking things up even more is just around the corner. That’s how reality really works. Can’t have a happy ending AI movie. We’ve been warned about it all these years and now it’s here. And it fucking sucks. Who could’ve predicted this? That’s $1 million question and now we’re just sitting back waiting on it to ruin the world more than it is already fucked. 
 
A return to directing for Gore Verbinski, who is one of the most hit or miss directors of all time. He’s been in director jail for the last decade since A Cure for Wellness bombed hard in 2016. The hits include Mouse Hunt, The Ring, the first two Pirates of the Caribbean movies, The Weather Man, and Rango. The rest, all more or less unwatchable, were The Mexican (at one time a guilty pleasure), the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie, and the truly god awful The Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp as fucking Tonto and “100% a cannable” Armie Hammer as the Lone Ranger. Yeesh. Did result in one of the greatest Onion headlines of all time, “Ecstatic American Indians Praise The Lone Ranger: ‘Finally Our Story Is Being Told,’ Tribespeople Say.” 
 

Ye olde finding-the-omnipotent-bald-child routine

Overall, highly recommend. Beautifully done. Fantastic opening. Dialogue is great. Super entertaining. Lot of homages to genres films, especially The Terminator, 12 Monkeys, and The Matrix. Also, Groundhog Day, Her, and Edge of Tomorrow. But won’t be on my top 10 come the end of the year as there are complaints. 
 
It reminded me of one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen, Miracle Mile. I was super into Denise Crosby sexually as a small child and watched everything she was in. This one angered me at the time, a lot to do with the film’s bleak cynicism. Apparently, I’m not the only one who thought this. I remember the film implying a dream out and then being like, no this is real, which I found bullshitty. So obviously not something for the positive column. Though I appreciate Don’t Die’s absurdist cynicism. 
 
Powder doing air guitar is the lamest thing I’ve ever seen. Didn’t need to be two hours and 15 minutes long. But what do you trim? The film’s ending, and probably ours, is The Matrix where humanity thinks they’ve won. Sort of a bullshit ending. Was any of a real type of bullshit that I hate. Thought it was very good up until the last 10 minutes. Again, the beginning was absolutely amazing. The second act was pretty good. Third act was pretty good until it fell apart at the very end. Sort of leaves you disappointed at the end, but that’s OK. Funny but sad as fuck.

From Deep: A doc about basketball and hip-hop

★★★--A basketball documentary. I’m a sucker for a basketball doc. In three parts. The first two parts were better than the third, which sort of went off the tracks. First part was a history of basketball and it’s connection to the black community. Second was hip hop’s roots and how it has always been intwined with the game. 

The third had the most potential and still requires the most thought and scholarship going forward. But it was also the most confusing, getting lost in the point it was trying to make. I think it was arguing that professional basketball players deserve more rights and to choose their employers via free agency without getting a bunch of crap. It also talks specifically about how the economic chasm between player and fan has never been greater. Just of sort of throws that out. 
 
Also gives a little bit of an apology for the LeBron James’ “Decision” from 2011. That’s when he had a television special to say he was leaving Cleveland. People I know from Akron and Cleveland are very protective of him, which is cool as I think he is a truly good dude. Tis true of him ass a teammate, father, politically active famous person, and so on. So I like what the doc says there, that the NBA and the city were making Lebron into a savior, which was unfair. It also talks some shit about Michael Jordan for being a corporate man in never taking a stance on anything political so he sells more Nikes, McDonalds, Gatorade, so forth. Jordan, that prick, did famously say “Republicans buy sneakers, too.” 
 
Overall, good but flawed and not super clear. Plus he sort of gets into dangerous territory when talking about African American culture for a weird looking Canadian. 

Send Help: Raimi's still got it

★★★★★--Super early yet, but this is my favorite film of 2026 thus far. Sam Raimi makes one hell of a horror movie. No one does splatter and gross-out humor like him. And he keeps you guessing. This movie was fun as shit. Go in knowing just what you see in the trailer.  
 
Caught Raimi's three common easter eggs in all of his movies ("The Classic," the Evil Dead necklace, and Bruce Campbell). Most of the time they are pretty easy to spot. I was sort of surprised I saw all of them in this flick as I'm not very observant and these were somewhat well hidden.  My favorite of the three was the Bruce Campbell portrait in the son's office. 
 
Anyway, yes, this is the ultimate "good-for-her" flick. No character is a true hero or villain in any Raimi movie, even the superhero ones. Such is the case here to the extreme. For example, the male lead, the POS CEO played by Dylan O'Brien (he is mostly thought of as the guy in those Maze Runner movies) is comically unlikable. Every time you think he is actually alright, then he comes back extra douchey, practically screaming "fuck you for thinking I'd change!" But you understand why he is that way and sort of feel for him in the end. 
 
Rachel McAdams is always fantastic, but is all-time here. Surprisingly does a pretty good job of making her kind of gross early on, but she's smoking by the time she is on the island. Doesn't surpass Regina George, but the woman has range. I'm sure this will go down as one of her most memorable performances.

Push: Evading a supernatural killer while having a baby is what Republicans think abortion is

★★★--Tense home-invasion having a baby while evading a killer movie. Really ups the ante here. Some memorable shit goes down, which the flick definitely has going for it. There are some good, scary scenes, most notably one featuring an elevator. 

 

Directed by David Charbonier and Justin Powell (they directed The Djinn together a few years back), and starring Alicia Sanz and Raúl Castillo (never seen either of them before but they were solid). It was alright. 

 

I was crazy about it until the third act. Becomes a real bummer of a movie at that point, and maybe goes supernatural. The end also implies that the survivor girl and her baby actually die and the killer is out on the loose. Then it all could have been a dream. Pretty obnoxious.

Presence: Soderbergh offers fresh take on the haunted house genre

★★★★--Told from the point of view of an unseen spirit, the film was really interesting and fresh. Takes the familiar haunted-house setup and gives the audience this intimate experience. We are inhabiting the ghost’s perspective as it observes a family unraveling. Good stuff. 

 

Lucy Liu is the only real star. She is still great and looks as good as she ever has. Julia Fox, the woman from Uncut Gems with hella ass, makes a brief appearance. Chris Sullivan, who plays the dad, I’ve seen around. He also delivers a strong performance. I see he and I are the same age… The kids, Callina Liang and Eddy Maday, are better than fine. 

 

Steven Soderbergh is so good with restraint. Turns the new family home into a space of tense, unspoken trauma. This meditative, unsettling thriller that lingers. Even made me pretty emotional. So many bangers from that guy. For whatever reason I don’t think he gets talked about a whole lot, but dude always brings it and is crazy prolific. I will see any movie he makes as long as he is making them. 

Neighborhood Watch: How much Jack Quaid can you handle?

 

★★★★--Jesus, how many movies was Jack Quaid in last year? This one was pretty fun. Low budget regular Shmo‘s thrown into an investigative situation. My kind of flick. has some flaws. Gets a little off track at some point. But rights the ship in the end. Reunites Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Malin Ackerman from Watchmen. Sort of funny because of Quaid and The Boys. I really like all three of those actors. Directed by one Duncan Skiles. I’ve seen and liked two of his three feature-lengths, the other being The Clovehitch Killer. Not a bad flick.

Stargate: A foray into 90s CGI

★★★★--Scanners meets Micky 17 with teleportation. When I saw this in the theater in 1994 as a child, I thought that we had reached the pinnacle of special effects. The CGI sucks. I was an idiot! Pretty good movie though. And like nothing I'd seen at the time. To quote the Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons, “Of the four star franchises, 'Wars,' 'Trek,' 'Gate,' and 'Search,' 'Gate' is easily my third favorite." 

Kurt Russell and James Spader are both solid and fun. Jaye Davidson from The Crying Game, if ya know, ya know, plays the alien dude. Directed by Roland Emmerich, the so-called "master of disaster" for being the go-to the-world-is-literally-falling-apart-guy. He's maybe  the biggest directors that isn't a household name. His films include Universal Soldier, Independence Day, the maligned Godzilla (1998), 2012, White House Down, Independence Day: Resurgence, and Moonfall, among others. According to Wikipedia he is the 17th-highest grossing Hollywood director of all time, which is nuts.