WeView

⭐ 9.0/10 (Originally written by Magdalene) A fantasy book set in a world that's based on a never-ending library was obviously going to appeal to me, so I went into it knowing nothing more than that. Evar is a young man who doesn't know his past, but he's stuck in a library with only a few other people and two constructs. Livira is a girl whose home is ruined by vicious creatures, and then she worms her way into a position at the library. Eventually they meet through a mysterious book. This book is a little bit Piranesi and a little bit Magician's Nephew. I read so much fantasy that the worlds tend to blur together, and despite being reminded of the aforementioned books, it felt so wondrous and enchanting to me. The only problem really is that it's super long and doesn't really need to be, especially since there are sequels. I got mad that I wasn't getting all the answers I wanted right away, but then I love a standalone.

⭐ 10.0/10 (Originally written by Magdalene) The premise of this one didn't excite me and so despite it being one of my favourite romance authors I wasn't sure how I'd feel about it, but I should have trusted Emily Henry! It's about Wyn and Harriet, who have recently broken up after a long relationship, but haven't told anyone yet. When they have their annual friend vacation they decide to pretend they're still together so they don't ruin it. Of Henry's other books, this book is the most like People We Meet on Vacation, where we get flashbacks to the past interspersed with the present and a couple with a lot of history. It's also probably her most emotional book, so definitely not a romcom, although she does have some really good, witty dialogue in there. I found the romance compelling, the characters deeply drawn, and the ending really beautiful. There's also the important friendship aspect to the plot that had me in tears.

⭐ 8.0/10 (Originally written by Magdalene) Jade is in Vietnam with her estranged father to help him in getting a house he bought ready to be a BnB in exchange for tuition money, and she is not happy about it. Soon enough, she starts having nightmares, seeing ghosts, and spitting out insects while she also learns about the history of the house and her family and how colonialism played a role. It's an entertaining YA book that explores colonialism, family history, and queerness all through a haunted house. It maybe tried to do too much in one book and I felt like some threads were lost along the way, but overall it's a solid horror.

⭐ 10.0/10 (Originally written by Magdalene) I actually had no idea what this movie was about going into it, but it was just as delightful and funny and weird as everyone is saying. I laughed very hard at several jokes. The world-building is kind of nonsensical, but I kind of love that the creators were just like "lol who cares". And they were right because I didn't care!

⭐ 8.0/10 (Originally written by Joseph) This is a truly cheesy movie about a grumpy Tom Hanks who, after being won over by his neighbors, has his heart grow 3 sizes in time to save Christmas. I'd say spoiler alert, but you already know that's what's going to happen after 5 minutes, and also that's actually the plot for How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The thing about me though is that sometimes I love cheesy movies. We Bought a Zoo is one of my favorites movies ever, and this movie is almost like that one. A guy loses his wife and thinks he has nothing to live for, only to discover there is beauty in life because someone won't give up on him. Honestly, this formula works on me every time. The Green Gables series has about ten of these arcs per book and they always hit. If only I could be more like Marisol cuz in reality I'm just a fricken Otto! I thought this movie was pretty funny. Otto being an asshole is exactly how those kinds of people act. It's actually...

⭐ 8.5/10 (Originally written by Tim) Most of this review will probably be comparing it to the movie, a movie that I actually enjoyed but struggled to follow the plot a bit. Everyone is super rich so I don't have a lot of empathy, and when the Bennet's are described as poor while their servants lay down a beautiful ham on their table it makes me roll my eyes. As if the plot of a less rich family trying to marry of their daughters to become a rich family should matter at all. But that's where Lizzie comes in! She is great in this iteration, strong woman who understands how goofy her sisters and mother are, and doesn't want to marry for political or financial reasons. I thought this actress was great, and the same goes for Mr. Darcy! Firth's steely demeanor is kind of hilarious at the beginning, but by the end I was swooning over the glimpses of emotion he shows. I think the major downside compared to the movie is the filmmaking. This is a static TV show on probab...

⭐ 8.0/10 (Originally written by Tim) Back on track! I thought this season had some of the best episodes yet, with some zany premises. I really like James Marsden and Kirsten Schaal getting time, and it felt like genuine progress was made for Liz, who still remains the main character and the one I dislike the most. I wonder if I rewatched season 1 now that I am fond of the characters I would see the seeds and think more fondly of it. Regardless this has been an enjoyable run, and with one more season I will be sad to see it go. At its highs it comes the closest to Community, which is my favourite comedy.

⭐ 7.0/10 (Originally written by Joseph) I watched this movie for a movie night with my seniors. You know, every movie is much better when you're getting paid to watch it. Or is it worse? I know I learned about this in psychology class... Anyways, this movie is okay. It's an old family movie, based on an old kid's novel, so it's very wholesome and nice, and also sad. Some of the seniors were weeping and saying it was very sentimental, so that was cute. But not exactly one I can say I'd recommend to anyone under 100. Also it was funny cuz there were several scenes of animals fighting, and it looked a liiiiiiittle too real to me... 70s ethics were just a bit different, weren't they??

⭐ 9.5/10 (Originally written by Joseph) I finished writing and realized there are some vague spoilers. I'm too lazy to go back. So yeah, spoiler warning. So this season took months for us to finish, and I even had to go back to read about the first episodes. Was Tuco still the primary antagonist to start? Sure was! And for that reason, I think this season takes a bit to get going. Tuco is very memorable, but I actually think he's not a great villain. Or at least, I think he's in just the right amount of episodes, cuz he is insane, and it's exhausting watching him. But those episodes are still great and intense, and once they wrap up the show gets even better. I think the best thing that happens is it introduces Saul who comes in gangbusters. He's a force! He's really great in this show and adds a ton. Mike also makes his debut this season. It's short and subtle, but it's there and I couldn't help but get excited to see him more. Altogether though, th...

⭐ 9.0/10 (Originally written by Tim) The first season of this show tracks the rise of big wave surfing in Nazare, driven by Garret McNamara and a crew of other surfers that we come to love. I wasn't sure if the show could justify a second season, since now we are in the present and following a growing cast of surfers, but the personalities are great and the second season is a thrill. Again, I could watch beautiful videos of people surfing mountains of water all day long. This show is filled with incredible shots that take your breath away. Last season was a lot about aging and watching others surpass you, to the point that now Garrett barely surfs and is essentially the Nazare shaman. We no longer have the flashback element of documentary storytelling, and are now just tracking the present. The scene has exploded, young bucks are doing backflips on 50 foot waves, and we meet some new surfers including a local boy looking for his shot at surfing stardom. His arc, where he teams up w...

⭐ 7.5/10 (Originally written by Joseph) After I rushed through the first book, this one took me 4 months to get through. Queue the Strongbad quote! Too loooooooong Clancy! Too looooong! This one definitely felt like a dropoff in my opinion, which makes me a little sad after the first one was one of my favorite fantasy novels ever. Where that one felt decidedly tight and intentional, with a big climax that everything led up to, this one just felt like a few chapters in what will be a (literal) never-ending saga. That's not bad necessarily, it just felt like I was never getting anywhere. However, I think the bigger issue is this one followed less interesting characters doing less interesting things. I am not crazy about Davos, and even less interested in Stanis. And my goodness, get fricken Theon Greyjoy outta here!!! I really don't get the choice to write from his perspective. He is so, so unlikeable, and reading his chapters are literal torture (torture? Get it? The real ones w...

⭐ 7.0/10 (Originally written by Tim) The best part of this movie is the acting. I think Hathaway's character is the most cookie-cutter rom-com character and she is only remembered because of Hathaway's charisma. Same goes for Streep, she is cruel for basically no reason, or at least the movie attempts to give her some shallow background to explain things, so it would be a Hallmark movie with any other actor. I also like that this movie is filmed on location in Manhattan and Paris. But then there is also a hotel room in Paris with a clearly green-screened window shot of the Eiffel tower, so just like with Forgetting Sarah Marshall why film in expensive places and then cut corners for weird stuff? Otherwise I found this movie unsatisfying, and reading other reviews online of people who love this was so baffling. People think her boyfriend is controlling and stopping her from her dream career? What movie are people watching? Her boyfriend is better looking than the fashion guy she...

⭐ 7.5/10 (Originally written by Tim) This was a fun little show where a real life person enters a jury, and little does he know that the whole thing is staged around him. Everyone else is an actor, and they put him through these crazy scenarios over the course of the trial to see how he will respond. I liked this show in concept a bit more, kind of like The Rehearsal. But its hard to feel invested in a trial that is completely fake, so all the best moments are outside the courtroom. The real beauty in this show is that they found a gem of a human being to put through it all. Ronald is kind and considerate and it is genuinely inspiring to see such a nice person behave this way. The finale was so heartwarming because this is a nice person being rewarded for being a nice person. James Marsden is the only big name guy here, playing himself, and I loved seeing how Ronald was generally unphased by being around a celebrity, and was genuinely upset when James was (intentionally for the show) b...

⭐ 8.0/10 (Originally written by Magdalene) What can I say, I just love mysteries based on Austen characters! This is a YA retelling of Sense and Sensibility except there's a murder to solve! Mr. Dashwood is a detective and suddenly dies, and the Dashwood sisters aren't convinced he died naturally. Elinor loves chemistry while Marianne wants to carry on the detective agency business, so they work together to find out who killed their father. This book is definitely more heavy on the mystery and light on the romance, to the point where they weren't really believable, but I always love a fun take on an Austen novel, especially when it's something other than P&P.

⭐ 8.0/10 (Originally written by Magdalene) This is like a classic raunchy buddy road trip movie, except all the main characters are Asian women. And it's set in China and Korea! Like a lot of movies of this type, it was uproariously funny pretty much beginning to end, but some of the sexual jokes made my prudish self squirm. Overall I had an excellent time though.

⭐ 9.0/10 (Originally written by Beans) I had incredibly high expectations for this movie. Writer and producer Greta Gerwig has made 2 of my favourite movies ever and I was going into this very excited. I thought it was awesome, but I don’t think it will have a lasting impression on me the same way the other two movies did. This is largely a movie by women for women, but I think it has a lot to say about men and the society we have created and what that means for all people. The cast was awesome and I love Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. The set pieces were incredible and the costumes were on point. I loved the soundtrack and it made me think a lot about my mom and sisters and other women in my life. The climax comes to the song of What Was I Made For by Billie Eilish and it really evokes a lot of emotion. I’m seeing a lot of discourse about this online and I’m loving it. I think it will be one of those movies that I will think about in the times to come. The final line was actually in...

⭐ 9.0/10 (Originally written by Tim) The movie weekend of the summer is here, and even though I didn't love Tenet I did love Dunkirk, so I hoped this would be a return to form for Nolan. The hype was insane, and the internet had poisoned my feed calling this as momentous as The Godfather. It isn't quite at that level, but this is an incredible 3 hour biopic that is more legal thriller than action movie. The hype around this movie is for this explosion Nolan sets off as part of the story, and that moment is amazing. Throughout the movie there are great effects to visualize Oppenheimer's mindset, or even how he imagines the science, and that is all done so well. I think the most incredible moments in the movie are not the explosions, but the way his unravelling is portrayed. It is tense and scary and excellent movie making. I thought a bit about The Imitation Game while watching this, which is so dry and boring, an area which this movie could have easily slipped into but didn...

⭐ 9.5/10 (Originally written by Tim) The best book in the series so far, maybe because it was the most linear. The factions are clearer, and we are following a small group of interesting characters who have a destination that we know is wrong as they make their way across a warn-torn hellscape. Pretty awesome stuff, and the flashes we get of Ciri are always interesting. Love the path she is on, reminds me of Arya from ASOIAF in a lot of ways. This book suffered the most for me from not having a map! What are we doing here, this book would have been amazing as we see the characters journey across the world and as different conflicts break out around them. I think that is the main piece this whole series has been missing and it was glaring here. Really like the introductions of Milva, Zoltan, and Regis. I was skeptical about Milva from the start, another woman who meets Geralt and just wants to sleep with him, but she ended up being much more complex that than, which was a breathe of fre...

⭐ 8.0/10 (Originally written by Joseph) We're continuing to ride our Green Gables high. This is again one of Jess's favorite movies and so she picked it for her birthday. But she watched it as a kid before reading the books. I'm a book purist! And this movie wasn't pure! So I did have a few problems with it, but I also had a few problems with the first movie my first viewing, so I wonder if I'll come back and regret my words. Essentially my problems were indeed where they deviated, especially when it comes to the romance. It's not really the same dynamic, especially with Anne herself. It also doesn't make a ton of sense. She just... Doesn't like Gilbert? And instead falls for a 50 year old? The "romance" is very icky and I have no idea what they were thinking. But there are also a bunch of great parts. Anne being a teacher, the sequence with the cows, and then the final part where she wins over mean Katherine. That was all pretty good. I also l...

⭐ 8.5/10 (Originally written by Beans) This was show 2/2 I had promised Joe I would finish before I started anything new. And while I will admit that I watched 2 pilot episodes of other shows in between, I am pleased to announced I finished this! I’m free! This is a crazy show about fandoms and stan culture with themes of horror and death and one girls mission to see her favourite star. The horror was not over the top, but could be pretty gruesome at times. It made me really uncomfortable and I wanted to look away, but somehow I couldn’t. The first 4 episodes were good, kind of a rinse and repeat. Episode 5 with Billie Eillish was amazing, episode 6 was so clever and had me reeling, and episode 7 was a great cap. This show made me think a lot about what I would be willing to do for my faves (at one point I was considering buying $1,000 tickets for upper bowl). But just that whole culture in general is fascinating. Donald Glover seems like a genius and I can’t wait to see more of his st...

⭐ 7.0/10 (Originally written by Joseph) So this is a book written by a man I met out here at a writer's meetup. He was really terrific, and just got published (by Biblioasis no less!) so I had to pick up his novel. Weview is a safe space, right? He'll never see this? Let's just say it's not reeeeeally my thing. It's a queer coming of age story, and I loved a lot about it, but it contains quite of bit of pretty graphic sexual content and I had a tough time getting through it. It just felt like sex was at the center of everything, and even when it wasn't about sex it still felt like it. Everyone is described by their attractiveness, the tightness of their clothes, the shapeliness of their figure, the size of their muscles. I feel like knowing the author hurt in this regard cuz it just felt a little... strange. That said, I still enjoyed quite a bit. The format is really cool, basically taking 5 or 6 snapshots of a man's life, mostly through other's perspec...

⭐ 8.0/10 (Originally written by Magdalene) Beauregard is a former getaway driver who's trying to live straight, but when his mechanic shop is suffering, he of course takes on One Last Job that seems simple but ends up much more complicated. It's like Fast and Furious (I think? Only seen one) except literary and with a character study. Beauregard is obviously doing bad things, but he cares so much about his wife and kids it's hard not to see the good in him. I don't care about car chase scenes, but these were intense. It's not an easy read, but I think it'll stick with me.

⭐ 9.5/10 (Originally written by Magdalene) This book explores the question of what to do about your problematic fav, especially monstrous men. This is a topic I chose for book club once because I've been struggling with it for a few years now. Unfortunately this book doesn't give a straight answer, because of course one does not exist. She tackles the issue from a bunch of different sides, including a chapter on women who were "bad" mothers. I found it very thought-provoking and interesting, and it's smart without being pompous or preachy.

⭐ 8.5/10 (Originally written by Magdalene) This is an interesting genre mashup - literary, historical, horror, western, fantasy... The main character is Adelaide, who is running away from her ruined home with a heavy suitcase that can't be opened in tow. She moves to a remote Montana town, but soon the case is opened and bad things start happening. It was pretty gripping, and quite unlike anything I've read before. I feel like I missed some of the deeper themes, but I appreciated what he was trying to do.

⭐ 8.0/10 (Originally written by Beans) I had never seen a Mission Impossible movie before but turns out you don’t have to! I liked this a lot. The action was awesome, the humour was pretty good, and the locations were unreal. I thought the villain and look into AI could’ve been really great but it just felt shallow.

⭐ 9.0/10 (Originally written by Beans) I think this is an incredible modern comedy. It has a star studded cast, a ridiculous plot and seriously funny but terrible dialogue. Jason Statham easily gets the mvp but Melissa McCarthy absolutely kills it. What can I say, I’m a sucker for these types of movies.

⭐ 10.0/10 (Originally written by Joseph) So we watched most of this while in PEI, but the thing about this movie is that it is nearly 3.5 hours long and so we watched it in many sittings. When we finished it last night, I basically cried the entire final 30 minutes. This story has its full grip on my soul! I'd think that would be very weird except that being in PEI helps one understand what a sensation this story has been for over a century. I watched this movie years ago with Jess, long before I read the book. I liked it back then, thinking it was funny and sweet, but ultimately too long. I think I'd maybe have the same assessment now if I hadn't read the book, but the book gave me a better appreciation of the movie. Again, it is very funny, very cute, and very authentic to both the books and the time period. The child actors are great, including Megan Follows, but I think the true magic comes from both Marilla and Matthew. What performances! They are perfect here. The par...

⭐ 7.5/10 (Originally written by Joseph) I just watched this movie like twenty minutes ago and don't really feel the need to stew on it. It's exactly what you want from a Mission Impossible movie. Incredibly high stakes that never feel all too serious, some crazy stunts, some half-baked romance, some cartoonish villains, and an insane amount of buzzwords. The Key! The Entity! Computations! Crypto! But anyways, I've watched enough of these to know how lame they are. I kinda like it. It's stupid, it's fun. That said, I've been telling everyone that this would be July's best movie. I had a lot invested in liking it. I liked it, had a good time, and yet I think it wasn't quite as good as Fallout, Ghost Protocol, or even Top Gun. There were fewer showstopping stunts in my opinion, though I suppose time will tell if they stick. The train sequence was amazing, and I liked the car chase stuff. I loved the blend of action and humor. Just nothing quite matched, say...

⭐ 6.5/10 (Originally written by Tim) I'll start with the good. There is a fun car chase that involves handcuffs that was delightful, and I loved part of the final action scenes involving a train that felt straight out of unchartered. The effects look pretty good, and I appreciate the practicality and staging. Filming in real life locations is, not surprisingly, really good. Venice and Rome are beautiful places, who knew. That being said, I didn't think this movie was very good. The plot is so so silly. I get it, no one watches these for the plot. But the AI stuff is so lame and half-baked, feels like someone imagined a room full of 1000 people using typewriters and built the plot around that. Just use a computer that isn't connected to the internet! Not to be a tech-guy, but the amount of buzzwords they throw around that amount to nothing feels so cheap. I loved the bank transfer that involved a loading bar saying "Decrypting blockchain" below it. The dialog is al...

⭐ 9.5/10 (Originally written by Tim) This show is basically perfect, only docking half a star for a slow start to the season. But by the end we were ripping through episodes, each one making me emotional in different ways. My main gripe with the first season is that the final reveal was too tidy, and this season resolves that. There is tons of work to be done to re-open this restaurant. The first season did an amazing job of showing the art, intensity, and creativity of cooking, and while this season has a lot of that the cooking is sidelined in some ways. The grind is in the paperwork and following city codes to rebuild this restaurant from the studs. Through this work we get to know more about the central cast, each kind of on their own quest, and each one with satisfying results. You might not believe me when I say this, but the MVP of this season is by far and away Richie. His showcase episode is so incredibly moving it makes me tear up remembering it. He is a man searching for pur...

⭐ 8.5/10 (Originally written by Magdalene) The concept of this one is weird - it's about a human named Victor who lives happily with three robots in a forest, but then they rescue another robot with an uncertain past, and when Victor's robot-dad gets taken and rebooted, they have to go on a journey to rescue him. It's a bit Pinocchio, a bit sci-fi, and a bit cyberpunk, with Klune's usual signature offbeat humour and quirky characters. I did really enjoy it, and I love the rich world that he built. It didn't quite have the same magic for me as Cerulean Sea did, but that might just be because that was my first Klune book and his writing felt so fresh and new then, and now I've come to expect it.

⭐ 9.5/10 (Originally written by Magdalene) I don't have anything new or interesting to say about this movie, other than that I too loved it and was blown away by the story, animation, and feelings it evoked in me.

⭐ 8.5/10 (Originally written by Joseph) This is the third book in the Anne series, and I got the chance to read it almost exclusively in PEI which is pretty cool. Montgomery is pretty firmly in my top ten authors at this point, so I'm happy that there is essentially a never ending supply of her work. This one follows Anne as she goes through college, and is definitely the book closest to a pure romance so far in this series. Again, all the hallmarks are here. Beautiful descriptions of countrysides and houses and fields and lakes. Lots of incredibly funny banter between small-town folk. Lots of wholesome if not predictable romance. A bigger negative that keeps this one from having a higher score is that Anne herself has lost a lot of what made her so great in the first book. She's not really funny at all anymore, and really not all that interesting. That's fine, as she's more a protagonist that meets lots of funny and interesting people, but I sure do miss the old Anne. ...

⭐ 8.0/10 (Originally written by Beans) This was a cool new animated film from Netflix that was being pretty highly praised. It’s about a non royal man who becomes a knight, is framed, teams up with a little demon/shapeshifter child and tries to clear his name. There were some great elements to this movie. Good voice acting. Riz Ahmed voiced the main character and was great. It also seemed that they based the character’s appearance off of Ahmed. Chloe Grace Moretz played Nimona, the child, and she was just fine, if not a little over the top. The little romance was cute, the friendship was nice, and the lesson they learned along the way was the real story! I’ll give you 5 guesses to figure out this plot and who the REAL monsters of society are. It was predictable but I still liked it. It was looking to me like maybe another Mitchell’s vs. Machines but this fell quite a bit short from that one. I also wonder if I would’ve laughed more had I watched it with someone. I’ve been eating up all...

⭐ 7.0/10 (Originally written by Tim) Decided to give another 2000s Apatow comedy a chance, and the same basic takeaways as Forgetting Sarah Marshall - the movie is too long and relies on raunchy and over the top humour for laughs. However, this one is slightly better because of Carell. I actually really like the message of the movie, that this guy is not actually a loser because he is kind and genuine, but it seems like all that gets lost in the humour of his friends and that's all people remember from this one. I appreciate that the love interest is someone that actually seems into Carell's character, and I really liked their dynamic. There is actually a very sweet love story here buried underneath all the dirty jokes. I couldn't stop thinking about how big of a phenomenon this movie was when it came out, and I remember kids on the playground quoting it, which is insane because the friends in this movie say crazy thing. Parents let their young children watch this kind ...

⭐ 6.5/10 (Originally written by Tim) Watched this for the first time because we wanted a comedy, and it was fine. I laughed a couple times, mostly at Paul Rudd, whose character was amazing. Otherwise its just a 2000s raunchy comedy. These Apatow movies are way too long for comedies, and the feel-good endings take too long to get to. I liked the idea of a fake NBC show that Kristen Bell stars in, and those clips made me laugh. Jason Segel is fine, and he fits the depressed guy thing they are going for here. I will never understand why the two women in this movie are so beautiful and the two guys are pudgy idiots. I guess I do understand, given the target audience for these movies. Another thing, they clearly were in Hawaii for filming a bunch of this, but then there are a couple scenes that are clearly using a green screen for the background. Pretty weird, since I assume they were in Hawaii, so maybe reshoots? Felt kinda cheap. Anyways, good for a couple laughs, don't ever nee...

⭐ 6.0/10 (Originally written by Joseph) This was my mother-in-law's choice for a family movie on the third night of vacation. She's not Robert Ebert, but she knows how to pick em!! Obviously this movie is not good. But I had very low expectations, and there were some good gags, and kinda a unique premise?? Honestly, better than I thought. Also, in a movie featuring a ton of literal children, how was Hillary Duff by far the worst actor?? I couldn't believe how completely horrendous she was. She had lots of time to practice!!

⭐ 7.5/10 (Originally written by Joseph) I've always been a little unsure about this movie. I love alien movies, and this one sure is spooky, building up in a really cool ways. But it also has a lot of serious philosophical stuff and some pretty serious melodrama that I'm not sure I can tolerate. I'm pretty sure it's very cheesy, but Mel Gibson and Joakin Pheonix do a pretty great job and have it toe that line. The first half is pretty good. Again, nice and spooky, and gave me nightmares as a kid. My only complaints would be that the girl acts like a possessed weirdo for no reason at all, and also any time CGI is used, it shows its age very poorly. But it's still terrific as a moody thriller. The second half is not quite as good. It gets a little campy, and little self-serious, and the bad CGI is out in full force. Still some pretty effective stuff, and the tie-ins are kinda nice even if they are a little forced. But overall, the Neufeld kids were driving me crazy on...

⭐ 10.0/10 (Originally written by Tim) The Tawny man trilogy has been my least favourite Hobb series so far, and I was worried about this final book. But I think this has easily been the best book in the entire saga (9 books in). It has the most plot out of any of these books, and it felt like a true conclusion to this world (even though there are 7 more books!?). I have read so many fantasy series that are unfinished, and even the ones that are finished usually leave me wanting more in the finale. The was seriously so cathartic and satisfying, I was blown away with how well all the plot threads were tied up. I can't really use names without spoilers (although who on this site will ever read this), but its been a long saga for many of them and I think every single one had a satisfying arc. The main character specifically, whose POV we have been with for so long, shows a lot of growth and change. These books are very internal, with very few large events or battles. This one ha...

⭐ 9.0/10 (Originally written by Tim) This was a tremendous romance movie about childhood friends that part ways as the girl's family moves away from Korea, then reconnect many years later over the internet, than many years after that in real life. The movie is slow, and I enjoyed it all the way through, but the final 40 minutes or so were amazing, with some very real feeling conversation and a final scene that is very static but had my heart racing and a pit in my throat. I think a huge part of my enjoyment was their internet reconnection, as it reminded me a lot of my long distance relationship with my now wife. The conversation, the awkward glitches, the laptop being held at various angles. Their expressions felt so true to my own experience, even the fact they they are using skype in the era when that was what ruled. The loneliness when the call ends. It was all familiar in a heart breaking way. Its hard to talk about what I loved about this movie without spoiling parts of the...

⭐ 7.0/10 (Originally written by Tim) After every season has improved, this one fell back to early season quality, and I fear the best is behind me. They go extra-zany for a bunch of episodes, and there are some that landed for me, but for the most part it felt like they were running out of ideas or something. The humour gets so super specific that it doesn't always land. I still like having this show in my life, and I like Jenna's unhinged energy more and more. The celebrity cameos have been weaker, but that's always a treat too.

⭐ 8.5/10 (Originally written by Beans) So I watched this based on Joes review. It’s hard to watch something that has affected someone so deeply and not feel the same way. I liked this movie a lot and think it was really cool and artsy but I didn’t love it nor did it emotionally affect me too much. I love Paul Mescal, and the daughter was also incredible. It’s a pretty simple plot yet a lot of it felt metaphorical and a lot was left unsaid. It did make me want to go to Turkey though. It was beautiful to see this male character be vulnerable, love his daughter, teach her important things, but then also break down, have pride, be embarrassed by her. Very complex, very dynamic.

⭐ 8.0/10 (Originally written by Beans) It took me a bit to get into this season, but once I did I couldn’t stop watching. It’s just genuinely good tv. No high stakes, no stress. It’s funny and endearing and comforting. You learn to love this whole cast while still rooting for the main character Janine played by Quinta Brunson who I think is hilarious and a genius. A few very minor complaints about this show are that I feel like they always try to teach a lesson in each episode. And that’s normally a good thing for me but it happens so often. And also, outside of the main cast everyone is a bad actor, especially the kids. This season has some great guest appearances and some returns of last seasons characters. I will watch this show as long as it keeps making seasons!

⭐ 9.0/10 (Originally written by Joseph) The only other novel I've read from Emily St John Mandel was Station Eleven, and I loved that one, but had a tough time starting this one because it's her lowest rated book, and about things (financial crimes, shipping) that I don't care about. Forget all that! This book is great, and Mandel is quickly making her way onto my Mount Rushmore of contemporary authors. The combination of craft and research in her books have really made me a huge fan. I'm still trying to understand why this book worked so well with me. The main plot points are still things I don't care about, but also the plot is pretty meandering, which I also don't usually love. There is no true main character who wants anything in particular. It's not particularly funny, there is no big emotional payoff. It really has nothing that checks my usual boxes except for one thing: it is beautifully written. I think that Mandel is one of the most talented living ...

⭐ 7.5/10 (Originally written by Joseph) This is a 90s war epic about the mid 1700s when France and England were fighting over North America, along with the indigenous tribes that got dragged into the fighting. It's always a bit tough to judge these kinds of movies by modern standards. Not only does it perhaps lack modern sensitivity (Hawkeye, the half-Mohican antagonist, is played by Daniel Day Lewis), but also the action scenes look a bit dated. Still, I think it had a lot of admirable qualities. I think as a period piece, this movie is really great. I'm always that sucker that watches the "historian rates movie accuracy" YouTube videos, and this one is often praised (it's also how I came across this movie). Again, the fighting feels a bit dated, but sometimes I think the lack of special effects makes it feel more authentic. Those are real explosions happening! The costumes are terrific, the political drama feels appropriate. There are also funny things that I f...

⭐ 7.5/10 (Originally written by Joseph) I am definitely in agreement that this season is much better than the first. I am a known Andrew Scott hater, but yeah, he was totally awesome in this show. He made a convert out of me!! (Get it? Cuz he's a priest?). I daresay that he might have been the most positive portrayal of a Christian within a secular context that I've seen. Did a Christian help write Fleabag? What's going on here? Most of this show comes down to their relationship. I was really loving their dynamic to start this show, and I thought that maybe even this show might do the thing that is impossible for modern showrunners, and that is to make something not about sex. Nope! It turns out everything is indeed just about sex. I just found this so annoying and disheartening. This is a spoiler, but if anyone ever finds a show where the two leads don't end up in bed, I'd love to watch it. Who is going to try something so daring and bold? I know that's kinda t...