The Penguin Lessons: Movie Review

A quietly powerful tale about facing fascism with a penguin by your side.

Set in 1976 in Argentina, The Penguin Lessons is indeed about a penguin, but quietly and also subtly, it’s also about living within a dictatorship. Tom (Steve Coogan) is an English teacher originally from Britain but in recent years has been working in South America. He arrives at St. George’s in Buenos Aires with armed guards pointing their guns at him, so it’s easy to see why they would be desperate for teachers.		2024 Directed by: Peter Cattaneo Based on the book by Tom Michell Screenplay by: Jeff Pope Starring: Steve Coogan

The Secret Agent: Movie Review

Quietly powerful, dark, tragic and uncomfortably funny.

There’s a great meme going around with side by side screenshots of Leonardo DiCaprio from One Battle After Another and Wager Moura from The Secret Agent both on a pay phone captioned, “I’m calling from the future. Fascism is still around.” Our protagonist from The Secret Agent will be disappointed to hear that, a man who was unable to stay on the sidelines when his country was engulfed in a dictatorship.		2025 Directed by: Kleber Mendonça Filho Screenplay by: Kleber Mendonça Filho Starring: Wagner Moura

Single on the 25th: Movie Review

A movie obsessed with being single but still needing a traditional rom-com.

With Single on the 25th, Hallmark is trying to get more of the single world. After all, younger generations are staying single more and more, so there is probably a bigger market here to reach. However, turning a singles movie into a romance is odd, and there is a fundamental problem here. In general, all Hallmark romances boil down to two single people who meet each other and fall in love. That’s also the same movie here, just with less of a plot.		2025 Directed by: Jonathan Wright Screenplay by: Joie Botkin Starring: Lyndsy Fonseca, Daniel Lissing