The Toxic Avenger is too good to be much good

Updates on Duck Soup Cinema, a lecture by film scholar Genevieve Yue, and new owner for Highway 18 Outdoor Theatre

Sep 08, 2025

The Toxic Avenger–Unrated | Macon Blair | USA | 2023 | 103 minutes

Viewed at AMC Fitchburg 18, Sunday, September 7

I was inspired to go so The Toxic Avenger after reading Nathan Rabin’s Substack review. It was written in the same spirit as my proclamations insisting that you see the Shin Godzilla re-release if you had not seen it in 2016. Some of you thanked me for insisting that you see it, some of you were less impressed by it. So I get it. Sometimes an enthusiastic response is not shared by others, especially when you have hyped it up yourself.

Watching The Toxic Avenger last night I frequently thought to myself, “You know, this is reasonably well made, with an interesting cast, and overall it is pretty good.” But I don’t think anyone would want to see a Toxic Avenger film that was described that way. The unrated version of this Toxic Avenger should inspire me to describe all of the gross out moments the next day in the lunch room, if I were still in high school. But with the exception of one or two isolated moments, I’m not sure why this would earn much beyond a hard-R rating. And if a Toxic Avenger film is just good, but not able to take me to an audacious, transgressive, WTF place, I’m not sure if it is of much use to anyone.

Peter Dinklage stars as Winston Gooze, a janitor at a big-pharma factory operated by the corrupt conglomerate, BTH. At home he takes care of his late-girlfriend’s son Wade (Jacob Tremblay). Winston discovers that he has maybe one year to live after a brain tumor diagnosis, and he’s concerned about Wade’s future. He asks BTH owner Bob Garbinger (a very smarmy Kevin Bacon) for help securing a drug which his BTH employee insurance will not cover. Abandoned by Garbinger and BTH, Winston plans a heist to steal the needed funds from BTH, because his work environment is probably responsible for his tumors.

After an unfortunate turn of coincidences during the heist, Winston ends up in a toxic soup which transforms him into the Toxic Avenger. He gets tied up in an investigation by disgruntled BTH employee J.J. Doherty (Taylour Paige) who wants to find and reveal evidence of BTH wrongdoings. Bob Garbinger assigns his troll-like younger brother Fritz (Elijah Wood) to eliminate Winston and J.J. Fritz is also the manager of an Insane Clown Posse-like band, Killer Nutz, who also happen to be hitmen that Fritz can assign to target Winston and J.J.

There are some other plot threads involving the mob support for BTH and the kidnapping of Wade to set a trap for Winston. But the upshot is that Winston’s grotesque transformation also makes him immune to bullets, and it is very easy for him to kill bad guys with his toxic mop.

The first bad-guy target of Winston’s mop loses his jaw and most of his face with one swipe. It is a very impressive and memorable effect. In most films, this would set the bar for a game of one-upmanship, and the film would continually top itself in terms of audacity and gore. But the gore doesn’t play out that way in The Toxic Avenger. There’s a lot of sameness to the remaining violence and gore and not much authentic audacity to the proceedings.

Dinklage, Bacon, and Wood are very good in the film, especially Dinklage who refuses to lean on the crutch of ironic self-awareness that Bacon and Wood seem to be forced into. Director Macon Blair (best known for his roles Jeremy Saulnier’s Blue Ruin and Green Room, and directing I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore) seems to forget that filmmakers don’t make cult films. Audience responses make cult films. A lot of Blair’s self-aware moments simply fall flat, none worse than the moment when Blair himself in his minor role (as J.J.’s housemate) appears next to Toxic Avenger creator Lloyd Kaufmann in a throw away shot near the end.

Despite my tepid response, I still hold to my in-film reaction: Toxic Avenger on its own terms is reasonably good. In its defense, Blair does not make the mistake of transforming Toxic Avenger lore in to something important. Blair does understand that this kind of film should be around 90 minutes (in this case, 103 minutes). If I had not entered The Toxic Avenger with a set of expectations, I probably would have liked it more than I did. But then again, without those expectations, I’m not sure if I would have seen it in the first place.

September Birthday Subscription Drive continues!

Please pass the word about Moving Image Madison to friends and colleagues who are film fans in Madison. It would be great to build the free subscription base as well as the paid subscription support! And don’t forget to check out Rob Thomas’s Not That Rob Thomas, also on Substack.

Experimental film scholar Genevieve Yue lecture on Thursday, September 11, 5:00pm

The Center for Visual Culture and Performance Studies will host a lecture by film scholar Genevieve Yue, “Film Festival Militancy,” on Thursday, September 11 at 5:00pm in Elvehjem Building L150 (800 University Avenue).

From the CVCPS website: “Yue’s lecture will examine screening spaces as they have been shaped and disrupted by experimental film. She draws on a history of militant actions focused on the screening space, including Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino’s clandestine screenings of The Hour of the Furnaces (1968), and various incendiary events at Knokke-le-Zoute in the 1960s, to consider the politics of recent protest at film festivals including IDFA, the Berlinale, and others. Against a liberal model of “post-screening discussion” popularized by places like the Flaherty Seminar, these more radical disruptions and the violent suppression they are met with reveal the repressive mechanisms of control that underlie otherwise liberal democratic institutions.”

This looks great, I hope I can make it!

Duck Soup Cinema 2025/2026 Season Update

As promised, the Duck Soup Cinema 2025/2026 season of silent films in the Capitol Theater in the Overture Center was announced last week.

Saturday, November 22, 2025: For Heaven’s Sake (Sam Taylor, 1926)
- An underappreciated Harold Lloyd comedy, whose reputation has grown in the past few years.
Saturday, February 21, 2026: Peter Pan (Herbert Brenon, 1924)
- A pre-Disney adaptation of the J.M Barrie stage play, featuring cinematography by James Wong Howe and some charming special effects.
Saturday, June 13, 2026: The Signal Tower (Clarence Brown, 1924)
- A Universal Pictures “Super-Jewel” production starring Virginia Valli and Wallace Beery

I’ll have more to say about each of these films in the coming weeks and months!

Highway 18 Outdoor Theater finds a new owner, will resume screenings in 2026

According to a Facebook post on the account of Wayne Hayes Real Estate, LLC, a new owner has purchased the Highway 18 Outdoor Theater in Jefferson, Wisconsin, and screenings will resume next Summer. The post states:

“After months of work trying to put this deal together we are proud to announce the new owner, Jason Fiege. He bought the property from Lee Burgess, the recent owner for the past several decades. Jason will be opening up next season and I know I will be at opening night!”

I, for one, want to be there for opening night as well. I really missed Highway 18 this summer.

Now Playing In Madison: September 8–15, 2025

Please confirm showtimes with the venues (follow venue links where provided). The commercial theaters update their weekend listings on Wednesdays.

Comments here are not reviews of the films, they are usually a response to the trailer, a summary of the buzz I have heard, or just snark.

Wisconsin Union Directorate Film

OLDBOY 9/12 & 9/13
KNIVES OUT 9/12 & 9/13

UW-Cinematheque

CLOUD 9/11
- The Ctek Thursday premieres kicks off with the latest thriller from Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Serpent’s Path; To the Ends of the Earth).

APOCALYPSE NOW 9/12
FORBIDDEN GAMES 9/13

Side Room Cinematic at Aftershock Games

Trauma, amnesia, war, and terror program on 9/11, 8:00pm

AMC Theatres, Flix Brewhouse, Marcus Theatres

Always check the respective websites to confirm dates and showtimes. I add trailers to new films of interest that you might not know about (American indies, international features, etc.).

AMC SCREEN UNSEEN: SEPTEMBER 15 at AMC.
BAAGHI-4 (2025) at AMC.
- Indian Hindi-language action thriller. Sanjay Dutt is cast as the antagonist in this one.
BAD GUYS 2, THE (2025) at AMC, Point, Palace.
BALTIMORONS, THE (2025) at AMC.
- The latest indie comedy from Jay Duplass (working solo without brother Mark).

BREAKFAST CLUB: 40TH ANNIVERSARY, THE (2025) at AMC, Flix, Point, Palace.
CAUGHT STEALING (2025) at AMC, Flix, Point, Palace.
CONJURING: LAST RITES, THE (2025) at AMC, Flix, Point, Palace.
DEMON SLAYER: KIMETSU NO YAIBA INFINITY CASTLE (2025) at AMC, Flix, Point, Palace.
DOWNTON ABBEY: THE GRAND FINALE (2025) at AMC, Flix, Point, Palace.
- May the Union stand if this is actually, really, positively the last installment in the franchise.
F1 THE MOVIE (2025) at AMC.
FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS, THE (2025) at AMC, Flix, Point, Palace.
FAST FIVE at Flix.
- This is a fantastic entry in the The Fast and the Furious franchise, and really set the tone for the second half of the entries. I’m tempted to see it on the big screen.
FREAKIER FRIDAY (2025) at AMC, Point, Palace.
GUNS & MOSES (FATHOM) at Point.
- Just tonight (9/8) and Wednesday (9/10) for this Fathom limited release.
HAMILTON at AMC, Flix, Point, Palace.
HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS at Point, Palace.
HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE at Point, Palace.
JAWS: 50TH ANNIVERSARY (2025) at AMC, Flix, Point, Palace.
JESTER 2, THE at Point, Palace.
- Just 9/15 and 9/16 for this Fathom limited release (as far as I can tell). I was not impressed by the trailer ahead of The Toxic Avenger.
LEGEND OF HEI 2, THE (2025) at AMC.
- Chinese animated film. A sequel to the 2019 Legend of Hei, and both films are a prequel to the animated television series The Legend of Luo Xiaohei.
LIGHT OF THE WORLD (2025) at AMC, Point, Palace.
- Faith-based animated feature. As the promo materials tell us, John, James, Andrew, Peter and their new friends follow Jesus on an unexpected adventure.
LONG WALK, THE (2025) at AMC, Flix, Point, Palace.
- Adaptation of Steven King (as Richard Bachman) 1979 novel, sort of like Battle Royale or The Hunger Games (or, in a sense, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? ) but this time the action is walking on a highway. This is actually getting decent reviews. Might be worth it for Cooper Hoffman’s presence.

LURKER (2025) at AMC.
- Read Rob Thomas’s review.
MADHARASI (2025) at AMC, Point.
- Indian Tamil-language action thriller directed by A.R. Murugadoss (who has directed successful Tamil, Telugu and Hindi language action films).

NAKED GUN, THE (2025) at AMC, Flix.
ROSES, THE (2025) at AMC, Flix, Point, Palace.
- Read Rob Thomas’s review.
SOUND OF MUSIC 60TH ANNIVERSARY, THE at Flix, Point, Palace.
SPINAL TAP II: THE END CONTINUES (2025) at AMC, Point, Palace.
- This saddens me, because it looks terrible. I hope it ends up better than the trailer and all of the advance publicity suggests.
SPLITSVILLE (2025) at AMC, Flix, Point, Palace.
SUPERMAN (2025) at AMC.
THREESOME, THE (2025) at AMC, Point.
- Read Rob Thomas’s review.
TOXIC AVENGER UNRATED, THE (2025) at AMC.
- Read my brief review, above
TOY STORY: 30TH ANNIVERSARY (2025) at AMC, Point, Palace.
TRIUMPH OF THE HEART at Point.
- Faith-based feature about Catholic priest who volunteered to die in place of another man at Auschwitz during World War II.
TWINLESS (2025) at AMC, Point.
- Indie black comedy, written, directed, and co-starring James Sweeney. Winner of the Audience Award at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

WEAPONS (2025) at AMC, Flix, Point, Palace.
- Read my brief review.

Looking Ahead:

Side Room Cinematic at Aftershock Games

Trauma, amnesia, war, and terror program on 9/11, 8:00pm

Cinesthesia, Madison Public Library Central Branch

DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS 9/17

Mills Folly Microcinema

Blake Barit: Digitalog, Wednesday, September 24, 7pm
Project Projection (Local Film and Video), Wednesday, October 22
- Submit your film today, details at Project Projection event page.
TBA, Wednesday, October 29
TBA, Wednesday, November 19
TBA, Wednesday, December 17

Four Star Video Rental at Lola’s Sidecar Lounge

CHOOSE ME, 9/24

Atwood Music Hall

TENANT FILM SERIES, Tuesday, October 21, 7:00pm
- Films and discussion, Push (2019) and Not a Penny on the Rents (1969). Presented with Madison Tenant Power.

Bartell Theatre

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, Sunday, October 12, 6:30pm
AGAINST THE WIND, Saturday, October 18, 7:00pm