In '28 Years Later,' Danny Boyle Hangs Zombie Dong: What I Watched Last Week
Giant zombie dicks and Chris Evans as a cater-waiter
Every Monday, I’ll post some quick hits about what I watched last week, including new releases, revisits, and first time watches.
28 Years Later (2025)
*NEW RELEASE*
Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams, Ralph Fiennes
Danny Boyle is back, and this time the zombies are hung! In a summer already dominated by two live-action mimeographs of cartoons, 28 Years Later sees Boyle returning to IP that is arguably his most iconic work, and evolving and subverting it into something (mostly) new. This is essentially a YA zombie coming-of-age story that somehow finds a unique way to confront the inevitability of death in a genre that’s been addressing that inevitability for nearly one hundred years. Boyle largely plays the hits as far as the zombies are concerned, adding one giant dong and replacing the original’s dirty mini-DV photography for a crisp, digital look shot largely on iPhones. As usual, he’s hurling the camera all over the place and having an absolute blast, and there’s an early chase scene that’s pretty killer (also love those low slow boys). Melancholy orange third act doctor played by Ralph Fiennes goes a long way, and the end is pure madness in a manner both irritating and “go off, king.” 2025 has been the year of activating the Jack O’Connell freak era and, honestly, that’s fine by me.
Materialists (2025)
*NEW RELEASE*
Director: Celine Song
Starring: Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, Pedro Pascal
The unique, ineffable power of one Dakota Johnson has arguably never been better utilized than in Celine Song’s follow-up to her Oscar-nominated Debut Past Lives. As a bit of an agnostic of that film, I was honestly really thrilled to see Song pivot to something that at least attempts to be such an ambitious (forgive me) Woody Allen-esque mixture of “New York rom-com” and surreality. Tonal whiplash abounds and there’s an abuse plotline that jars every time it rears its head. But the basic thrust here is a romantic drama about the conflict of a woman who grew up so poor she can’t help but see finding a partner as an economic arrangement, a relevant preoccupation that I also haven’t seen really addressed other than in period dramas, but one which nevertheless gets a contemporary face-lift here by Song.
The King’s Speech (2010)
REWATCH
Director: Tom Hooper
Starring: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter, Guy Pearce, Timothy Spall, Derek Jaacobi, Jennifer Ehle, Michael Gambon
I know it’s been said to death, but it really is so nuts this beat The Social Network.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
REWATCH
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Charles Fleischer, Stubby Kaye, Joanna Cassidy
Saw BOOP! The Musical (lol) and remembered Betty herself popped up in this movie for two seconds, so gave this another go for the first time since I was in high school, maybe? It remains an absolute blast, and I was so obsessed with Bob Hoskins this time that I had to search who won Best Actor this year to find the person at which I should direct my rage (it was Dustin Hoffman for Rain Man). Genuinely belongs in a conversation with Star Wars, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Lord of the Rings, and Mad Max: Fury Road as one of the most immaculate technical achievements ever filmed. It just comes down to the density of detail in every frame, and the painstaking ways Zemeckis continually finds new ways to make the interaction between what’s real and what’s animated feel believable. Jessica Rabbit still so hot, Baby Herman one of our best and worst guys.
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
REWATCH
Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Madhur Mittal, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan
Another Best Picture winner that has just aged like milk. Thank you for giving us Dev Patel, and thank you for “Jai Ho,” but this really is a tediously structured slog that is also somehow torture porn and poverty porn at the same time. It won the Oscar in a year that’s gotta have one of the worst Best Picture line-ups in recent memory, beating The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, and The Reader.
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