9 Best Things I Watched and Read in February

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I had planned to close out Free Week with my review of Megalopolis but life got in the way and that'll be posting sometime next week or so. But, hey, we get to talk about great movies to watch and books to read!

February was a short month, but I still filled it with consuming some great stuff. The eight items below include romance, history, documentary, and a few pieces of trash cinema. You could say I have a little something for everyone. So, let's take a look at the best things I watched and read in February!

Wuthering Heights (2026)

I pretty much spent all of February writing about Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights. Whether that was how the studio went overboard with influencers (that got A LOT of opinions on social), as well as the confusion audiences had when they finally saw the movie. Hell, I even did an entire Ticklish Biz episode on the 1939 version.

All for a movie that, at the end of the day, I'm still nothing more than pleased with. My review was about as a meh as one could get. I've seen it twice now and it's still good.....just good. As I said in my original review: What results is a lush take Bronte's novel that keeps to the spirit of the book, as well as the majority of the plot beats from the first half of the novel, while making the narrative changes of time and character compression of past adaptations. Robbie, Elordi and Alison Oliver, especially, thrive in Bronte's messy world of hurt people who hurt people, with a hefty amount of Fennell's penchant for the sexual.

This is all to say, I'd actually enjoy taking a Wuthering Heights break for awhile.

The Last Tsar: The Abdication of Nicholas II and the Fall of the Romanovs by Tsuyoshi Hasegawa

It's very weird how the books I'm reading lately are connecting to something going on in the world, or are interrelated. And this isn't me just seeking out these books, specifically. In the case of Tsuyoshi Hasegawa's book on the Russian Revolution, this was actually a book I'd started several months ago but never finished.

I'm glad I did because, wow, if you'd like a little glimpse into our current government it gives a lot of interesting "history repeats itself" moments. Regardless, I'm a millennial who grew up with Anastasia fever, so I've read a lot about the Romonovs. Hasegawa's book is less about them and more the complex political machinations that led to their eventual execution. In fact, the book doesn't even end with their demise but the arrest of Tsar Nicholas II. Hasegawa is comprehensive, and at times the book is so dense with information (and a lot of similar/long Russian names) it can be hard to get everything square in your head. But the history is so compelling it was hard for me to ignore it. Hell, I came back to finish it months later because I was so enthralled by what I'd started. This is a big one for history nerds like me.

The Garden of Women (1954)

Japanese classic cinema has been amazing to get into over the last few years. Much of what I've watched has been great, and I've been venturing out beyond the likes of Akira Kurosawa. Keisuke Kinoshita is one I'm eager to see more from after watching this fabulous feminist story: The Garden of Women.

The "garden," in this case, is an all-girls boarding school that prepares young women for being subservient and non-political. But over the course of the narrative, the changing landscape of Japan sees the various women, who all come from different walks of life, realize they want more from the school. Yoshiko Kuga plays Akiko, one of the more radical young girls, who slowly starts to break down the resistance of many of the women who don't want to take a stand. The acting across the board is fantastic, and the writing lends such verisimilitude to all the characters. If you're interested in looking at women's movements from other countries, this is required viewing. On top of that, it's just a solid domestic drama that I wish had a physical media release.

From Darkness to Light (2024)

Most film fans have a morbid curiosity about The Day the Clown Cried, the infamous Holocaust film directed by Jerry Lewis. This documentary is one of the more comprehensive attempts to separate fact from fiction – spoiler, the movie wasn't 100% shelved for being terrible – as well as actually show footage from the movie. What we see is the story of a director desperate to be taken seriously, and his perfectionism being his undoing. I'm not a big Jerry Lewis fan. Okay, I'm not a fan at all. But hearing him in archival interviews talk about the toll the project is taking on him while it's being made shows a possible auteur driven to the breaking point. We'll never know what this movie might had done for Lewis's career had he finished it. But this documentary attempts to give us a glimpse.

The Housemaid (2025)

I missed Paul Feig's latest directorial effort when it dropped at the end of last year. I'd heard from a lot of people that it was "trashy fun." Considering Feig's been a bit up and down of late, I was skeptical. (A Simple Favor 2 was SO bad!) This definitely doesn't have the same bit as the first Simple Favor, but it's certainly in the ballpark. I figured out the twist about 15 minutes in, not because I'd read the original novel, but because I'd read ANOTHER novel that had a similar storyline and, honestly, that author should sue. Sydney Sweeney tries but it's a bit laughable the movie selling her as a tough, hardened chick. Brendan Sklenar.....he's tall? If you get some friend together with a bottle of wine this will be enjoyable.

Duel in the Sun (1946)

The production history behind Duel in the Sun is probably more interesting than the actual movie. A vanity project taken on by David O. Selznick, who put his soon-to-be wife Jennifer Jones in the lead role, went through multiple directors, many of whom couldn't handle Selznick's micromanaging. By the time it came out the movie was infamous, dubbed "Lust in the Dust" by the Hollywood gossip rags.

It's certainly a movie indicative of the more hilarious elements of Old Hollywood. Jones plays a half-Mexican girl named Pearl – she's swathed in so much brownface that her teeth glow – torn between two men: the straight arrow Jesse (Joseph Cotten) or the evil/rapey Lewton (Gregory Peck). You read those names right and, honestly, not sure which one is more miscast. But, hey, Gregory Peck never looked hotter at least. Duel in the Sun was hoped to be bigger than Gone With the Wind (1939) which, it's not. I don't even think it's Jezebel (1938). But it is a fun melodrama for those who love a little soap opera with their history.

Hoppers (2026)

From my review: Pixar returns to the simplicity of their storytelling. Toy Story asked us, "What happens when toys are left on their own," while Hoppers asks, "What happens if we could talk to animals on their level." Once Mabel enters the forest world, the movie relaxes into a world that has staunch rules, called "pond rules," and celeb anrating why animals are so cool: their mix of wild abandon and death coming around every corner. King George explains there isn't a circle of life so much as the tacit awareness they're all on someone's food chain. "When you gotta eat, eat," he says as a worm we've met for 30 seconds is plucked by a bird.

Hoppers is one of the best Pixar movies in recent years, though the script does feel slight in character motivations. However, the delightful voice cast led by Curda and Moynihan are great, and the movie is at its best when it's weird. Who doesn't love adorable critters? Definitely a return to form, if not an instant classic.

The Bride! (2026)

From my review: Director Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Bride! doesn't care what you think about it. What unfolds over its 126 minutes is nothing short of a brash, feminist rallying cry that simultaneously crafts a compelling antiheroine while mourning the litany of dead women cast aside by bad men (and society) over generations.

Anchoring it all is a luminous performance by Jessie Buckley, in a dual role, that hearkens back to the classic elegance of Old Hollywood. It's a tale so magnetic it helps step over some of the bigger storytelling flaws that point to potential studio interference and a longer cut somewhere out there.

The Green-Eyed Blonde (1957)

I thought Duel in the Sun would be the most oddball movie on this list, then I watched 1957's The Green-Eyed Blonde. Don't let the title fool you, the movie is actually about the brunette Betsy (Melinda Casey), an abused teenage girl sent to juvenile hall after having a baby and refusing to name the father. She meets a variety of bad girls, including Green Eyes (Susan Oliver). When one of the more psychotic inmates kidnaps Betsy's baby and hides it in the school, all the girls band together to help raise the child.

Written by Sally Stubblefield and an uncredited Dalton Trumbo the movie is a remarkably progressive examination of femininity and juvenile delinquency. The various girls aren't bad, but set upon by circumstances beyond their control. One girl, Trixie (Tommie Moore), is a young Black girl integrated into the plot and given an incredibly positive happy ending. The movie has an utterly bananas ending that abruptly cuts the story off at the knees, but this is such an intriguing little blip in the '50s juvenile delinquency genre worth seeking out. Again, wish this had a physical media release!

This post is part of The Film Maven free week! All week you'll be reading a mix of posts that include what paid subscribers get regularly!

I have a new book dropping on July 28th! It's But Have You Read the Book: Romance Edition! I look at 40 of the most iconic romance novels and their filmic counterparts to show you the changes in between. Preorder your copy now!