Posts

Peaky Blinders (Season 4)

By
Image
⭐ 9/10 Well well well, what do we have here. This show is actually good now?? I thought this season was a massive step up in every aspect. We have a new big bad villain again, but now its Adrian Brody! The stakes this season felt way higher, and they actually killed a family member! I've been begging for them to do this, and even though its the inconsequential brother it still felt like a dramatic shift for the show. Sometimes I feel like the show has plot arcs that never really lead to everything, but here everything felt connected to the families survival. The fallout from last season helped, and while everything was patched up kind of quickly I felt like the damage that was done persisted. The characters all feel changed from that moment on, and especially early, seeing Polly going through a religious psychosis and Arthur failing to adapt to peaceful living, it was just very effective. I do think the season had two golden opportunities and fumbled them both. One is in a traitor...
Post a Comment
Read more

Frozen

By
Image
⭐ 8/10 I am not sure I had seen this since it was in theatres, and breaking news, its pretty good! While I wish the back half had more songs, the songs here are almost all great. The animation is excellent, all the snow and ice and fog, and Olaf is still kind of funny to me. We did have to skip the scene where Elsa's castle is attacked, and I had a memory of this movie feeling a bit long, so that probably helped. I remember a lot being made of this not being a classic Disney movie where the prince saves the day, and it is nice that they lead up to a true-love's-kiss and then actively push away from that. But at the same time Anna does find her true love... so they have their cake and eat it too. Speaking of Anna, this is her movie! Elsa kind of has the lasting cultural impact, and rightfully so, Let It Go is a song my great grandchildren will be asking for in the car. You don't see many young girls at Halloween dressed up as Anna, yet she probably has 80% of the speaking i...
1 comment
Read more

Mina the Hollower

By
Image
⭐ 9.5/10 This is everything I want in a video game. By the people who made Shovel Knight, a game I loved, its in the style of older games like Zelda Link to the Past. It has fantastic music and terrific art direction. Every screen you visit feels packed with detail and love. It features fun puzzles, excellent bosses, and a perfectly high difficult level. I think the story here is another great element, in that there is some darkness to this game that looks so innocent. When someone says something like that I think of Undertale, that goes for this cutesy humour, dark in attempt to get a laugh. I feel like this actually attempts to be serious, despite some funny moments, so it manages to feel like an adult game despite the old style. Kind of like older Final Fantasy, it manages to pull off a tone despite an art style that can feel childish, and I think that's really cool. There are two downsides to this game. One is that I got to the final boss' final form, lost, and then didn...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thelma & Louise

By
Image
⭐9/10 This movie is a modern Letterboxd wet dream. This has to be every film bros favorite movie when trying to impress women, and every letterboxd girl's favorite movie directed by a man.  It's about Thelma and Louise as two average, working class women in the American south who go out on a girls trip and get into trouble, and their solutions to getting out of trouble sink them deeper and deeper. Great premise that leads to great payoffs.  This is one of those movies that seems to be movie craft at it's various highest levels. The writing (I should emphasize, written by a woman) is wonderful, giving these women loads of depth and complexity, which is then brought to screen with some wonderful performances.  There are some wide-ranging character arcs, but they are made perfectly believable on merit of the acting. It is directed by Ridley Scott at the height of his powers, and man, what a striking beauty this movie is. It also features a Hanz Zimmer score which...
Post a Comment
Read more

Friendship

By
Image
⭐8.5/10 My sweet king Tim Robinson, he can do no wrong.  This is a 100 minute I Think You Should Leave Sketch where Tim Robinson is his typical weirdo character who is lonely because he is very weird. He makes a great friend in Paul Rudd, but Tim blows it! Being a cool friend is hard and not every bit works!  I loved this movie. It was kinda about male loneliness, but in an absurd way where it's hard to actually feel bad for him. The entire movie is completely stupid, and I think the movie didn't review especially well because it's hard to watch such a weird movie for so long. But I watched this movie in 30 movie segments, and had my movie-enhancing substance ingested and I think this movie is best watched that way.  Speaking of substances, the drug trip scene at the end was my favorite and is classic Tim. There's a ton of good one-offs here, just thinking of like, the Marvel spoilers, the drum-party scene, or the son kissing his mom on the lips. All just so...
Post a Comment
Read more

Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens

By
Image
⭐8.5/10 I really have no idea why I decided to pick this one up but randomly opened the front cover at a friend's house, read the intro, and thought, hey that's not bad! A few weeks later and I still think it's all pretty solid and a pretty perfect summer read.  It's about a girl in the bayou (not really, but basically) who's essentially abandoned when she's really young, so she learns to raise herself and goes on to have a fascinating life alone in the marsh. Interwoven in this is a bit of a murder mystery with some courtroom drama, and while I thought that this was the weaker element, I will say it added some intrigue and propulsion and didn't sour the experience for me.  I thought the writing was solid right through, most often serviceable but sometimes put on the burners and was quite effective. The setting was vivid and its best trait, and while I've heard that it's not actually an accurate depiction of the marshes of North Carolina,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pop Culture Jeopardy (Season 2)

By
Image
⭐ 10/10 A joy to see this back! All the same things as last season, a fun quiz show to watch with your partner, with a much higher probability of knowing the answers than true Jeopardy. A huge improvement here is that they went with teams of 2 instead of 3, so you still get a sense of the friend dynamics. Jess and I have been watching Jeopardy almost every night, and that show is a masterpiece, as mechanically perfected as any show could be. 20 minute episodes with skippable commercials baked in, so probably actually 18 minutes. It is down to a science, the pace is so perfect, and its so easy to just crush 3 in a row and feel like you even learned something! That's where going back to Pop Culture was difficult - these games are too long! Like 40 minutes, and Colin Jost is funny, but having to interact with 6 people, as well as little jokes between some of the questions, I was just really missing the pace. Then came the final, which they spread over 2 games, with a cumulative score...
Post a Comment
Read more

Obsession

By
Image
⭐ 7.5/10 This movie definitely isn't for me. "But it's like Get Out, a thriller with some horror elements". Nope this is pure horror. A guy wishes a girl would love him, and she becomes possessed with an obsessed demon. I wasn't completely terrified, but I watched the last 30 minutes through my fingers. I do think the acting here is incredible, and Inde being cast as my girl Rogue made me decide I had to check her out. Her and Michael Johnston were incredible in their own ways, and probably the reason this movie has been so insanely successful. She is freaky and weird with crazy facial control, and he is a down right loser. I will say he's maybe a slight bit too good looking to be this big of a loser, but the incel energy is crazy strong here. In the era of "male loneliness" this might be showing why some guys should actually be alone. There is this incredible scene where the real Nikki shows up (happens a couple times, always to great effect), and ...
Post a Comment
Read more

End of Oak Street

By
Image
⭐3/10 I kinda knew this movie would be bad, but I am willing to give a bad movie a shot if it either features dinosaurs, or features Ewan McGregor. This movie has both!  This movie was terrible. I can't really speak to anything I thought it did well. This is the type of movie that typically goes straight to Netflix, and has that horrendous quality where all the characters are constantly narrating what's going on so that you can have it on while you scroll your phone. The child actors are terrible, and while Hathaway tries to overcome the writing with an honest effort, McGregor just mails it in. The plot is beyond stupid, but not in the fun way because it tries to be so earnest.  The tone is all over the place and I'm not sure who this movie is for. It's too ridiculous for adults, but too violent for kids, and the music always had me wondering what a scene is even going for. I would also say the pacing was bewildering, just ripping through plot and character ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Alone (Season 7)

By
Image
⭐8/10 This was going to be the season where I was going to say that's enough, I can take a break now. It took a long while to get through because my heart wasn't into it in the same way. It was a repeat location from the previous season, and it became clear pretty quickly that the winner would be a guy that's pretty insufferable.  Still, by the end the show had it's hooks back in! First off, I'll begrudgingly admit that the winner was one of the best contestants in the show's history, everything he touched turning to gold. His total lack of empathy and true caveman mindset propelled him, and he did some gnarly things to survive that I have to respect in some ways. But what intrigued me more is that he spent his final weeks on his own constantly reflecting on this, basically coming to terms with the fact that he's not likeable and has huge regrets with the way he treated his loved ones. I love this aspect of the show so much, that people spend so ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Spider-Man: Brand New Day

By
Image
⭐7.5/10 Fresh slop made to order! Here I was being convinced that this was something new. Let me be clear about one thing: this is your standard issue Marvel slop. Sure, it's a little better than the recycled trash that's come out on screens big and small since Endgame, but this is slop in it's purest form. And that's mostly fine! I just wouldn't go in expecting a change to the Marvel formula.  In terms of the good, I would say my favorite thing about this movie is that the action is awesome. I've heard there is lot more practical stunts and I think that shows. Simple things like swinging through the city is the best it has been in years, and the fights are pretty inspired with a cool Crouching Tiger fight at the end. I would say it's the coolest looking action Marvel has had since Shang-Chi.  I also did think the premise was cool and has its moments. Peter being lonely and having to choose between love or duty is a nice theme, but I actually tho...
2 comments
Read more

The Sheep Detectives

By
Image
⭐6/10 It breaks my heart to give this movie a low score because it's so sweet and loveable, but it's surely going for an audience that is a lot younger than I was expecting. It's got a lot of Paddington which I usually enjoy, and I'm not sure what it was but it was probably just too syrupy sweet for me. Probably it was that stupid winter lamb. Kill that thing and get it on the grill pronto.  It's a fun murder mystery with a few laughs, though I'll say the solve in the mystery was outrageous and not something someone could have guessed in a million years. It was kinda bringing out all the clues at the end and didn't really make sense in a satisfying way. Also Cousin Greg is the detective and he has a terrible British accent. Just make him American! He's good for the role but I couldn't get his accent out of my head.  Probably a better watch if you're with kids, though it's a little dark and scary. I loved Bryan Cranston's take ...
Post a Comment
Read more

House of the Dragon (Season 3)

By
Image
⭐9/10 I have been blissfully unaware of the discourse around this show this time around, but I still get the impression that not everyone is happy with this season.  I think staying away from the discourse helps because while I admit that this show has some flaws, I think it's held to an impossibility high standard and for a modern fantasy TV show, I think it's still essentially unmatched (it's only competition being others in this universe). The action looks absolutely incredible with lots of dragons and gritty sword fights, still plenty of court intrigue, deep, complex characters, well-written dialogue and great costumes. I think this is the gold standard of fantasy TV, and if it came out before Thrones I think it would be a revelation. I was hard on season 2, but I think this season fixes most of those mistakes and I also think I have a sunnier view of that season in retrospect.  This season starts with one of the series's best episodes and has a crazy ru...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Drama

By
Image
⭐8.5/10 A really great movie that I hated watching. It's a classic A24 movie in every way, being smart and funny and well-acted, but also true to life in a way that can make me pretty uncomfortable.  Tim wrote the spoiler-free premise to this movie on this very site, so I won't repeat it, but yeah, it asks a really good question! Love a movie that makes you think a bit, and this is among all-time movies for conversations that start during the end credits. For me, Zendeya's confession is a non-issue, but then again I like my women a little feisty anyways...  Aside from the big question, I thought the other elements of this movie were great. I'm a bit of a skepitc of both Pattinson and Zendeya, but I thought they were both phenomenal in these roles, especially Zendeya who I really hadn't seen in a real role I don't think? She's fabulous here and captured the complex emotions that go into a truly complex idea, and Pattinson is great across from here...
Post a Comment
Read more

Spider-Man: Brand New Day

By
Image
⭐ 8.5/10 Best Marvel movie since Endgame? I really enjoyed this movie in a way I didn't think I would, in that it made me feel like a kid seeing the first Spiderman in theatres! Opposite of the Odyssey, I was pretty closed off going in, but the charisma of Tom Holland (is this the same guy in the Odyssey!?) and Zendaya and the rest of the cast won me over. There are still a bunch of the classic beats here, and I hate when a villain is converted through the power of love after battling their trauma. But without spoiling anything, I loved the villain! It's a character I have a lot of invested time in, and it really got me excited for the future of the MCU! Who would have thought I would ever say that. In general this just felt young and fresh, a total opposite to the constant retreads we have been feeling. Maybe it helps that Spiderman is the best character they have, and even though Holland is aging up this was right in the sweet spot. I thought the last movie was atrocious fan...
Post a Comment
Read more

House of the Dragon (Season 3)

By
Image
⭐ 8.5/10 Despite my weirdly high score for the first season, I think this has been the best season so far. There are a bunch of flaws and I am constantly thinking of all my nits, but this season had a good balance of action, on-the-road hijinks, and character progression. The MVP of the season is Rhaenyra, specifically Emma D'Arcy, who I thought was fantastic. Episode 3 was the standout here, and while I always want this show to step outside the Red Keep, three was claustrophobic in all the best ways. Right down to the sound design, it made leadership feel like a heavy burden, one only complicated by her gender and what people expect from her. It's the type of episode Daenerys needed so badly. That episode coming off a two-episode battle is probably the best stretch of the season to date, even if there are parts of the battle I didn't like. My main complaint with the battles is that we have spent so little time with the important people in this battle. The woman leader in ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Peaky Blinders (Season 3)

By
Image
⭐ 8/10 Probably the best season yet, I love that it started with a time jump. New setting, our characters have all progressed a bunch, its something that I think is important in these longer shows. No longer in the slums and living a luxurious life, that also means the villains get bigger (from mob leaders to politicians), and the stales get higher. There is a death early here that kind of propels the whole season, and I thought it was done well, even if that relationship never really worked for me. The new villain is Paddy Considine as an evil priest, which was cool, but I found his motivation and ultimate demise really lacking. That was my fear in season two, we keep just getting one season villains who have an unceremonious end. Sam Neill is missed, and I think there would have been a ton of room for him this season. The finale was exciting, definitely one of the best episodes of the series, and I thought the final note was very effective, kind of Tommy's Godfather moment, fami...
1 comment
Read more

Rilla of Ingleside - L.M. Montgomery

By
Image
⭐9/10 She did it! Montgomery wrote a different kind of book! This was (almost) the type of book I've been dying to read from her. Anne and co. have coasted on SEVEN books of small-town hijinks, enjoying simple pleasures and funny conversations, and I have enjoyed reading them all. The plot is secondary to the feeling, and the feeling is taken from this beautiful writing and insight into simple, rural living. But that all must change as the world does, and in this one we see Anne and this cast of characters I am now SO incredibly familiar with have to reckon with evil they can't ignore. World War 1 breaks out, and they can no longer close their eyes to the lands beyond PEI.  In my original Green Gables review, I compared the book to Lord of the Rings if the ring never happened and Bilbo and Frodo just lived their simple, innocent lives. Well, Rilla of Ingleside feels more like Lord of the Rings but if it was told from the perspective of those who stayed in the Shire ...
2 comments
Read more

Kill Bill: Volume 1

By
Image
⭐9/10 I have been all over the map in my ratings for Tarantino movies but this one puts him back in my good books. I said in my Hollywood review that Tarantino violence usually works because he builds up the most insidious of villains and so the audience is okay with whatever violence is done against them. Hollywood didn't work for me because the villains were just young hippies, whereas in Django they are slave owners, in Basterds they are Nazis, and in Kill Bill they are rapists. So yeah! Slice all you want!  But on a more practical level, the absurd amounts of violence work here because it is so silly and over-the-top that one is never actually really grossed out or squeamish. This movie is an ode to classic Samurai and Western movies and is the perfect movie to itch that 12 year old brain that's still very much alive in me. It's a super simple premise where Uma Thurman has been wronged, and so she wants revenge on all those involved. She sets up the confront...
Post a Comment
Read more

Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender

By
Image
⭐8/10 I am pretty much always skeptical when a beloved IP gets some sort of universe expansion, and ATLA has one of the worst track records outside of Korra. I hadn't even planned to watch this, but was pleasantly surprised when it reviewed pretty well.  I will say I don't think this movie really adds much to the universe. It's a lot of fan service, and the story is a little bit of a nothing story. It felt like an arc that would fit comfortably within any season of the main show in an episode or two, and the characters and universe aren't developed in a way that's interesting enough to explore some years in the future. I had the distinct feeling that I will remember this like I remembered El Camino, which is to say not at all, but I enjoyed while watching it and it was cool to see some loose ends tied up.  All those negatives aside, I do think this show had a lot of merit mostly in the form of looking amazing and featuring some of the coolest action sequ...
Post a Comment
Read more