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Toy Story 3

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⭐ 10/10 I had not seen this one since it came out while I was in high school, and I remember liking it then. The only scene I really remembered was the ending, with the incinerator and the toy handoff, and something about the peril of those moments stuck with me. But there is so much here, perfect ending of a perfect trilogy. A big portion of this movie is a heist movie! I forgot that Buzz speaks in a romantic Spanish for a good chunk of this! So many funny and memorable things I simply had forgotten about, making this more than just a sad farewell. But boy oh boy, is it sad. Early on, seeing Andy's mom look at an empty room before her son leave for college, it nearly broke me, and my son is like 16 years away from leaving home. So much of this movie is applicable for the general heartbreak of saying goodbye. Andy letting go of his toys mirrors his saying goodbye to him. The toys at one point accept death! In the beginning many of them accept going to the attic, which is essential...
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Toy Story 2

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⭐ 10/10 The best Toy Story, although that might be because I have seen this movie a million times and know all the words. It's been a long time since I've seen it, and I forgot how incredible it is. Better yet, my boy loved it! The first movie he has ever asked to watch again, and that's huge. I could go scene by scene, but I think the best use of this review is to talk about how impressive it is that the followed up an amazing movie with another amazing movie, one that has more to say! The bad guy here is a collector, who wants toys not for playing with, but to lock up and admire. That's relevant for the collector economy we still have, and spoke to me as an adult who is always worried about the lifespan of the things he owns. Things are meant to be used, toys meant to be played with, its a simple idea but completely timeless. Not only that, but some of the toys want to be collectables, since a child's love doesn't last forever they would rather just live fore...
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House of the Dragon (Season 2)

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⭐ 8.5/10 I was ready to write a review about how much better I thought this season was from the last, but I gave that a 9?! Not going to go modify that one, but we must have been in a starved of TV, because I have no good memories of that show. Production value is always there, but I thought Season 1 was a bit claustrophobic, concerned with only the politics of the Red Keep, and the changing cast was confusing and did not lead to me having any empathy for the characters. Also, create a new theme song cowards! Maybe it helps that I was not waiting a week between episodes, but I liked this season! Starts off with one of the more horrific events in the whole series. I didn't have the kids during the first season, but now those beats really land, I could hardly watch the funeral procession after. Speaking of kids, Aemond! Jace! Those boys are amazing, I thought incredible acting. Aemond in particular is so perfectly menacing, a bit of Joffrey but more powerful and adult. Best looking ...
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Rainbow Valley - L.M. Montgomery

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⭐8/10 Back in the Anneverse! I was a little hesitant to get back to it because I didn't love the last one didn't want anything to stain my view of one who has become maybe my second favorite author. However, she wrote this one while she was still young and thus likely still more passionate about writing these stories. To start, I thought this was about to be another classic. The thing about the previous entry (which she wrote 20 years later) is that it's about Anne's kids, and they are all sweet and innocent and boring. This book quickly introduces Montgomery's speciality which is bad kids (and old grouchy lady of whom there are a few)! This book killed me and it was kinda the mark of a real comic genius, always pushing the envelope a little. I'm sure it was quite scandalous in the 20s when little girls were reading about Mary Vance threatening to kill herself if others wouldn't forgive her.  But Mary takes a back seat in the book pretty quickly ...
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Wind River

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⭐6/10 I feel pretty conflicted about this one. I have watched a few Sheridan movies, namely Sicario and Hell or High Water, and loved them both, but also had this sense that those movies were teetering on being conservative propoganda. There is always some lip service to speaking meaningfully about big issues, and in those cases I felt they were enough.  It wasn't enough in this one. In this movie, Jeremy Renner discoverers a dead body on an Indian reservation, and so the tough but naïve FBI agent (Elizabeth Olsen) comes and is supposed to solve the mystery. However, she needs the help of the seasoned, world-weary Renner to do it.  I have a lot of thoughts on this one, but I'll try to limit them. It's a good movie. It looks okay (though not nearly good enough considering the landscapes they have to work with), it deals with some heavy themes, the action is exciting, the music is atmospheric though maybe a little overused, and yeah, it's a classic tale of goo...
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The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver

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⭐10/10 My goodness, what a book. I have said it before, but there are books that inspire me to get writing, and then there are books like this that make me want to give it up altogether. I could never do this! What an impressive example of beautiful prose meeting unfathomable research, brilliant insights with an artful touch.  This is a story about an American missionary family travelling to 1960s Congo to convert a tribal people group that they don't understand. However, it's the overzealous father who drags his family there, but you only get the experience from the POV of his 4 daughters and occasionally his wife. It's definitely a book that focuses on the experiences of women as they process all the hardship and tragedy that unfolds around them.  I will also add that this plotline takes up about 2/3 of the book, and the final third tells the story of the sisters after they leave. I don't think my description sounds super compelling, but this is a brillian...
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Howl's Moving Castle

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⭐6/10 Miyazaki WHY!!! I come back so often because I truly want to believe, and I go in with such a full heart and such low expectations. Almost every time I am burned.  This movie is absolutely gorgeous. It is maybe his prettiest movie with beautiful landscapes and cool character designs and cute lil monsters. The music is outstanding, maybe the most recognizable main Ghibli theme, and it is not used sparingly which I actually always love. I wanted to love this movie. It has themes of the evils of industrialization and the horrors and senselessnes of war - everything I want and normally connect with. But this movie again is utter and total nonsense. No two scenes follow logically in any sense in this movie and it drives me crazy because if the story was merely passable I would defend this movie to the death. I get that themes and ideas are hidden and worth exploring, but I need some semblance of a story to follow or I will zone out, and that's exactly what happened....
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Alone (Season 6)

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⭐9.5/10 This is often regarded as the best season of Alone, and after jumping around in a few seasons I think I'm inclined to agree. It's mostly your standard fare, which is always amazing, but also includes the single best contestant to date in terms of what I have seen. Hyper competence is always a joy to watch, and every single thing this guy does works out. In a game that often turns out to be a starvation contest, this guy looked like he was about to survive the winter with food to spare and could have lived indefinitely out there.  So that's pretty well the entire review of the season. There are other things I'll quickly mention, but essentially this is a standard season with the exception of a guy who was amazing at this, and also a fun personality to watch. They are at Great Slave Lake, which is WAY up north, so it was an interesting season though I'd honestly prefer if the locations were a bit more hospitable. Survival is hard enough!  One highl...
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Lawrence of Arabia

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⭐ 10/10 The only word to describe this movie is epic. Sprawling, grand, whatever adjective you want, this is a massive movie. It tells the long story of T.E. Lawrence, a British man who gets close with a group of Arabs, becoming a leader who helps them fight back against their oppressors. But are his British overlords actually the real oppressors?? The influence this movie has had on everything that has come after it is so clear. Every action set piece, even a bunch of the shots, watching this felt like getting a history of film education. There is a shot in here that made me think of the Dune 3 trailer, and while maybe not directly inspired I have been thinking about both of them since I first saw them. Just give me Dune 3 right now please. Anyways, this movie is incredible. I was able to watch it in a theatre with a bunch of people, and there is a transition early in the movie where I knew this wasn't just some stuffy old movie, as the crowd gasped in appreciation of a simple ye...
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Celebrity Jeopardy! - Tournament of Champions

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⭐ 9/10 We were going through Pop Culture Jeopardy withdrawal and saw this on Crave. They don't have previous seasons, which we would have loved, but we settled to watch this tournament of champions, and loved it. The questions are easier, but not all pop culture like the formerly mentioned show, so you feel a lot smarter answering these. I will say some of the questions were way too easy, almost to the shock of the players, and there are some incredibly strong players here! Patton Oswalt, for example, busting out all this history knowledge. Celebrity is used loosely a bit here, no real super stars, but all pretty smart people. I was hoping Timothy Simons could come through but he had a pretty weak performance. The semi finals and finals were really incredible, with really close matches, one of which resulted in a come-from-behind win using deep Jeopardy betting logic in final jeopardy. It's really fun just answering questions, but then the competitiveness of a close game and t...
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The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

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⭐10/10 I watched this one a week ago and have not stopped thinking about it. I didn't give it a perfect score when I finished, but the more time I give it, the more I like it, and at this point I'm ready to admit that I think it's a masterpiece. More than that, it is a movie made for me. The writing, the cinematography, the music, the performances; all are exactly what I look for in movies.  This is based on the true story of Jesse James being betrayed by one of his gang members for the bounty on his head. I like that the movie is spoiled straight away because it means that immediately you are less invested in the plot and gives you room to think about these characters. There are plenty of good ones, but I think the two Ford brothers stand out above the rest. Sam Rockwell as the greasy older brother is maybe my favorite Rockwell performance, and then Casey Affleck has one of the most impressive performances you will ever see as Robert Ford. Capturing that pride,...
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Mega Man Battle Network 5: Team Protoman

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⭐4/10 It's hard to admit but this game was excruciating. I remember it being one of my favorite games in the series as a kid, but it really doesn't hold up. It's a shame because they switch up the formula a bit and I think the additions are a big hit. But they also take away so much of what makes the previous games special.  The game has a huge, bizarre visual downgrade, and I guess it was to save storage space so they could add what they wanted, but I'm not sure it was worth it. It looks pretty bad. But the bigger issue is the progression, or lack thereof, with no ability to get better chips as you go along which is kinda the whole exciting gameplay loop of the previous. It's very static and boring, and you end up using the same chips through your entire playthrough.  All of that would have been manageable, but then they commit the final sin of ramping up the random encounters which is such a terrible, brainless choice. It makes it nearly unplayable for...
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Muppet Treasure Island

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⭐7/10 I liked this movie as a kid, but I didn't exactly love it. Muppet humour is so weird because it's hard to know who the audience is. Much of it is for adults, and yet some of it is so silly it's hard for adults to sit through the whole thing.  Well, I still liked but didn't love it, watching it now 20 years later. My likes and dislikes are all different now, but it still has that problem of not really having an audience. It was pretty funny at times, and Tim Curry was absolutely born to play a pirate, but there are also huge lulls to sit through. One of my primary takeaways was that the story is pretty cool and it makes me want to read Treasure Island. The Muppets always do a great job of adapting classics, having plenty of lines right from the book, but also, ya know, the pirate ship doubles as a cruise ship for Rizzo's rat friends.  Good movie, maybe one to watch with your 8 year old as is the intended experience. 
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Balatro

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⭐ 9/10 Two video game reviews in a row, who is this guy?? I'm clearly in a deck-builder phase, and this was a very natural next step after Slay The Spire. This is a deck building roguelike, but based on poker and poker hands, plus 150 jokers to modify how you play and increase your points round after round. Like all deck-builders it is endlessly fun, with each round feeling unique, and also very addicting when you find another game-breaking deck. I won't go on and on about what makes this fun, because a big part of it is just seeing large numbers go up. There are tons and tons of modifications and challenges through the different decks and stakes (like Slay The Spire's "ascensions" of Hades' "heat"), and its so satisfying to feel yourself improving as a player even though the difficulty is still high. And this is where I will cut into the game a bit, since I don't think its perfect. Even after all this time I still only win maybe 20% of the time...
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Slay The Spire 2

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⭐ 10/10 This game is still in early access, but I've sunk enough time into it to confirm this is a perfect game. The first one is nearly perfect, and this game is more polished in every way. A couple new characters that are super fun to learn. A bunch of characters with the same decks as the first game, but with more stronger cards. Better animations, smoother UI. Endlessly fun. It was highly beneficial to play this almost immediately after this first, since it is so familiar, more of an expansion than a new game. So you get early wins, which is satisfying, but there are also a ton of new cards and relics, so you are continuing to learn and experiment on your previous knowledge. That being said, I don't think I would ever recommend someone go back and play the first, this game is better in every way. The first game is more difficult, since it feels like this game has a couple more OP cards, which feels like a better balance. This is also early access, so things are changing, w...
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How to Stay Alive in the Woods - Bradford Angier

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⭐8/10 This is the holy grail of survival lit, and I read it for a variety of reasons, but the biggest one was just that I like this stuff. It kinda just goes over the major topics - securing food, building shelter, staying warm, seeking aid. It gives practical advice in a pretty simple way, and tells you what to look out for.  I love this stuff but I've never actually camped rough in this way. I want to and hope to, and I guess if I do, I'll know what to expect! But the bigger thing is I find survival so interesting and explains so much of the history of our world and our makeup as humans. That's getting deeper into the weeds than this book does, but there is something so compelling and human when reading about this stuff.  That's really all I got. It's about the best book in this regard, but I imagine most would be more interested in reading a fictional survival story (Hatchet anyone?) or watching the greatest show of all time, Alone. Still, a good way ...
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Survivor 50

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⭐8/10 Another season of Survivor and my complaints are the same as always. The ending always leaves a sour taste in my mouth because this game is pretty broken at this point. Another winner where you would have an impossible time explaining why they deserve to win to an audience that doesn't breathe Survivor.  But I won't let that get in the way of an amazing season! This was a big season bringing back popular players from the previous 50 seasons. I loved seeing all of the old players, most of which I wasn't familiar with. Lots of very fun personalities that led to great drama that only Survivor can manufacture. Again, the bones of this show are fantastic, and this season had it all. The drama, the scheming, a few meaty challenge beasts, debates over honor. I like that they aren't afraid to bring back the truly zany personalities. Mike White, Christian, Coach, Ozzy, Cirie, all legends, all fun to watch. The big twists were sometimes a lot of fun and other ti...
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Remarkably Bright Creatures

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⭐6/10 This is standard issue Netflix slop. Jess chose it, and it was never going to really appeal to me, but honestly it was sweet enough to win over my calloused heart a bit. It's about an old grieving woman with nothing to live for, but then she runs into a down-on-his-luck rascal and finds meaning in mentoring him. It's wholesome, has a tidy ending, and I'll always appreciate an aging protagonist. Also it's filmed in Deep Cove. I've been there! That was cool to see.  It's not a masterpiece but it's good for a cozy evening at home. 
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Beef (Season 2)

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⭐ 9/10 I wasn't sure if Beef needed another season, and its very easy to draw some lines between analogous characters in both seasons, but this is very much a worthwhile followup to the first season. It hits on a bunch of the same themes as well, but what's wrong with more of a good thing? In this season, there are two couples. One is Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan (Llewyn Davis reunion), who run a fancy country club. The other is Cailee Spaeny and Charles Melton who work at the club. The younger couple sees the older have an explosive fight, they record it, use it as blackmail, and we are off. Melton is a revelation here! I loved him in May December, and here he is this dorky sweet jock, an unusual combo he completely nails. He is so funny, and so handsome, and so warm, I loved every scene he was in. Can't say I was an early stock holder but I'm all in now. Make this guy James Bond for all I care, I want to see him in everything. His dynamic with Spaeny is great, anot...
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Notting Hill

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⭐ 7/10 Do you think anyone for the rest of time will watch The Mandalorian and Grogu, and then Notting Hill, in the same day? I was wracking my brain for some thematic connections as if I was writing a high school English essay on the two, but no luck. This movie is all about the chemistry of its two leads, and there is no denying it. Julia is steely and reserved, but when she smiles its light transcends the screen you are watching it on. And Hugh, good old Hugh with those baby-blues, what a charmer. I don't think he's conventionally attractive, but the bumbling brit with quips and that shy smile, I get the appeal. They are very well balanced in this movie, him as a nobody running a travel book store and her as the most famous actress alive. They have a meet cute, a bunch of follow up encounters where she is hard to get to but he is persistent and charming and funny. I actually got quite a few laughs out of this movie. But that's where my praise for the movie will end. She...
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