Best First Watches: April 2025
Can you believe I forgot the month changed? Fully did not register that it is now May. The last week of April was far too busy for my liking, but I think I say that every week. Anyway, we’re in May, the beginning of the baseball season. One thing you might not know about me if you’re only here for movie recs is that, from time to time, I am sporty and I love baseball. I always watch Bull Durham at some point during the season. But I digress. Without further ado, here are my favorite first watches of April.
Courtesy of Stolen Kingdom
I went to the University of Central Florida and my part-time job was at Walt Disney World. For a while, I thought my future would be in the hospitality industry, but I guess it kind of still is. Anyway, I worked at Disney World and wore a colonial dress to sell massive turkey legs. It’s a weird place, but a great job for a broke college kid. Who doesn’t want to be able to ride rollercoasters for free? Stolen Kingdom is a documentary about the black market of stolen Disney items. It’s a movie for people who are sick of the Disney magic or who are curious about the seedy underbelly of The Happiest Place on Earth.
Courtesy of Pools
Pools is lazy, hazy, and sweaty. It’s the kind of lost summertime flick that makes your heart ache with nostalgia for a time and place that are long gone. The film also introduced me to Odessa A'zion, the sole reason I ended up seeing Until Dawn.
Neurotika Haus & Jacket Weather
At SXSW, I interviewed the cast and writers of The True Beauty of Being Bitten By a Tick. The movie was shot on location in a home rented by Callie Hernandez who told me she filmed three movies in that house. Invention is another one of those movies. It’s a fascinating experimental, yet-scripted, exploration of what a person leaves behind when they pass away.
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
I mean, what can be said about Sinners that hasn’t already been said? I’m not as high on the film as everyone else seems to be (I can’t get over how the female characters were written!), but man is it a force of nature.
Honorable Mention - Black Mirror: Hotel Reverie
Nick Wall/Netflix
I only list this as an honorable mention because I’m starting my campaign for Emma Corrin to be cast as Celia St. James in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I’ve never seen Old Hollywood glamour like hers feel so natural in someone who didn’t live through that era.
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