Honey Bunch (2025) – The Film Buff Review – Already one of the films of the Year

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Quiet on the set production stage one action. Here we go. AK pad. It’s the AKA pad fil podcast. I can do nothing but gleefully and joyfully welcome you back to the show of shows. I was going to open today with with no intro because I I just like to get into the the movie sometimes. Like let let me let’s just get into it. And originally I had recorded this this intro where I’m describing everything that’s new about this movie. Shutter. It’s on AMC Plus Honey Bunch 2025. You watch this movie

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and it’s all new, but well, is it really? Is anything really new? Right? That’s the circular back and forth, you know, like you kind of hear that a lot when it’s like, oh, such and such mimicked this or paid homage and ripped it off, right? Like we hear these things a lot. And if when you absorb as much c culture here in Philadelphia, PA as the film buff, something happens here. Here’s a real observation. You see enough, you read enough. I mean, I probably read 10,000 comics in my lifetime. And that’s just me. You

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know, comics is easy gauge because you can do a uh, you know, long boxes hold so much. Short boxes hold so much. I mean, I I read constantly. Uh, this year I’m probably reading more fiction that already than I have in previous years. You usually I love biographies, stuff like that. That that’s a bulk of my reading. But you absorb enough of the pop culture sphere, entertainment and all. And the view arrived to the revelation that the more something is familiar the the more it’s original

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here faces I’m not familiar with now given some of them right we can say they’re of of Hollywood work meaning they’re they’re working actors yes some of the faces in this movie working actors guys like Jason Issacs just for example But Homer, Da, these are two main characters played by Grace Glow Siki, Glowiki, Ben Petri or Petriri, right? I get multiple pronunciations. I mean, two familiar faces, right? Like, and there the camera is on these two a lot. And then we over here we discuss

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because I got to scroll up. We scroll up to our filmmakers right here. MSF Meline Sims Fer or Fer. We’re we’re having fun with names right now. and Dusty Magnusini or Manelini writer directors. And with with these two, I I I I do the thing. I got no more. And and boom, like short films. Short films all over the internet, all over IMDb. Oh my god. Perfect. Right. We we get two individuals that have a longunning collaborative uh history lineage already, right? They can package something and deliver

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it. And this is the movie that they choose to show us what they can do with long form narratives. So we get a movie that uses like snap zooms and quick panes. It uses a concept, right? Like what is Honey Bunch about? And all it’s all familiar. We have a wooded environment and we’re in the forest. And I I the forest in this movie is part of the allegory, part of the the theme, the plot, the hook, as I like to say, of this movie. And in the center of this forest, we have right like the Hensel

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and Gretle house. We have a house you find wandering when you’re lost. And within this house is salvation. And in it the love of your life, the one you can never let go. You can get it back. You can you can be there. You may have to sacrifice every every ounce of of your being to to get that person back the way you want them. But guess what? This is a process. And now you’re engaged. And everything I’m telling you is what you discover in this movie. Is there tropes? Is there moments in

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this movie where right like from scene to scene are we not explaining enough? Are we dragging? Yeah. Yeah. But guess what? I mean, we got two first time filmmakers. Now given Yeah. Like let let’s just say so my initial research isn’t 100%. So, forgive me if they’ve uh if these if Dusty and Meline Malini Meline these two the the D and M connection the DM if they if they have done more than than I I’m saying here but we’re trying to be as thorough and and I’m just setting myself up because a lot

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here and we I mean, this is one of the threads of this podcast where time and time again, newer filmmakers are not very much discoverable on the web. Uh, they don’t have wikis. They have incomplete IMDbs. Uh, there’s very little out there, but the exhilarating thing is like they’re almost just normal people, right? They’re just like a a normal person with a highlevel skill set that made a movie and it’s boom. It’s like this person could be living across the hall from you. They could be your neighbor.

00:07:13
Yeah. They could have they could have dropped a a cane of soup in Target and you you picked it up for them, right? Like the all around us and and I like that. And I think that lends itself to the type of movie this is because this is a movie that that walks up to you and it stares you in the face and it wants to know where are you like just in life. And I I just think that this movie is is highly significant. It’s one of the best debuts I’ve I’ve seen in in a good stretch. And yeah, you

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guys know we we we watch a lot of movies here and exploring this movie and let’s just say like going to the house in this movie and knowing what it’s about and and and what’s done there and how it’s done, it leaves little question. everything is answered and and by the time the credits roll and I I love the credits so shout out to whoever did the credits we are satisfied we’re enlightened and I love it when I’m pulled right like where the the filmmakers like pull me and they’re they’re pulling my emotions

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and in in the last 10 minutes I’ll say maybe even less of this movie It’s low, it’s high. It’s low, it’s high. That’s hard to do. Aka Patterson. And And there’s so much from these two that I’m I’m looking forward to that I want more of at this point. These two can make a movie of the year. They can. And let’s talk about this podcast. The film buff. Yeah. Like films like this and bringing a film like this is important to me. It’s why we do it. It’s why uh you guys know recently uh

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I’ve had a family tragedy. But I can sit down and bring something to you guys and focus on this and just just bleed my mind. Just just step away for a little bit. And it seems so much more significant when this a film like Honey Bunch is attached to that release of mine. I love you guys. You guys are great. And uh thank you too for a lot of the outpouring. Uh you you guys have been far too kind. This is the aka Pad Film Buff podcast available right now at AMC Plus. It’s one of the best premiere movies right

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now. Honey Bunch 2025. Rock and roll. Okay, that’s a wrap.

The credits for those who brought us, Honey Bunch

PETER A DELUCA AKAPD

AKAPAD is a versatile thinker known across Philadelphia, Europe, and even in the vast Multiverse as The Electic One. By day, he excels as an IT Mastermind, assisting individuals, both big and small, with a wide range of simple and complex solutions. In contrast, he is also a talented illustrator, a passionate comic book enthusiast, a creative content creator, and an active live streamer. Additionally, his podcast, “AKAPAD The Film Buff Podcast,” boasts an impressive catalog of over 500 episodes available on nearly every major platform.