WeView

⭐ 9.5/10 (Originally written by Joseph) Hey it's Becky's favorite book! I've been reading a lot of adventure and exploration nonfiction lately, so I really wanted to try this one. Turns out it is indeed amazing. I know it's a decently well-known story, but I'd think that, had it not happened right during WW1, it would be even more mainstream. There will be some spoilers, but this story is 100 years old, and also the book spoils everything in the first chapter. It's the story about Shackleton and his crew trying to cross Antarctica, only to get stranded and have to fight their way back to safety. Of course that's very hard to do in a winter hellscape because, ya know, freezing, and also, ya know, nobody lives there. I will say (and I know this will upset Becky) that this book is kinda a tale of two halves. The first half, while interesting, is definitely pretty slow. I would say that Shackleton's goal is not exactly a noble, or really even a cool one beca...

⭐ 8.5/10 (Originally written by Joseph) This is a documentary about the Endurance and the group of survivors who were stranded in Antarctica. I just finished the book (review coming soon!) and I always enjoy putting some visuals to what I just read. I wanted to quickly review this one first because I have fewer thoughts. Really, all i can say is that it was fantastic and depicted the story really well. It uses tons of ancient video footage that was taken on the voyage, and then photos and drawings, as well as some grainy "modern" footage. The narrator is Liam Neeson which is about as good as it gets. No real negatives besides. Because it's a bit quicker, you don't really get that sense of absolute prolonged torture. They also really worship Shackleton which I've always felt a bit weird about, because leadership is actually not a real thing, and anyways Worsley is the real MVP, much like Samwise was to Frodo. But yeah! A much more accessible entry into the Enduranc...

⭐ 8.5/10 (Originally written by Beans) Similar to what has already been said, this season is basically in everyone’s top 3 of best shows ever. It’s dark and gritty with characters you love and route for but are so obviously flawed. It’s spooky and gripping and tells an incredible story start to finish. Yet, for me too it fell short. Nothing to do with the show, but it just didn’t capture me the way I thought and hoped it would. When I think of a perfect limited series (I know this has more seasons but they’re all self contained) Chernobyl is the standard. And this was no Chernobyl for me. I still really enjoyed it and watched with friends. It was cool cause I had just been to Louisiana a bit ago, albeit different settings and locations. Matthew McConaughey is super sexy and was hard not to fall in love with his character.

⭐ 8.5/10 (Originally written by Joseph) This is a dark crime show that came out in the olden days (2014) and a show that a lot of people consider one of the best. It's definitely one of the highlights of the beginning of the TV golden age. It features Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as two detectives investigating cult murders. It's really well made, with some great acting, phenomenal direction and terrific, unique set design. I loved this show, and often wanted to immediately watch one episode after the other. There's lots of great twists, both within the crime and their personal lives, and it's all just well written and executed. That said, I wouldn't say this was my perfect show. I can't point to anything specifically, but I would just say it fell a little short. I found it maybe a little confusing, and by the end it almost felt a little too standard. Those are smaller nitpicks, but yeah, just below a 10 for me. Also, I found it SO ridiculous that Wo...

⭐ 8.5/10 (Originally written by Magdalene) This is a dark French mystery series set in a town with a super high murder rate. Pretty compelling stuff, but so heavy that I'm not sure I'll continue the show.

⭐ 7.5/10 (Originally written by Joseph) This is a cool 2007 sci-fi movie in which the sun is dying, and so a group of astronauts are sent to it strapped with a big bomb to get it going. That sounds maybe a little silly, but I would actually say the science feels serious and believable, and not so campy. Anyways, along the way, they hear a distress signal from a failed mission that was launched 10 years ago to do the same thing... I actually thought this movie did a ton right. It was interesting and philosophical, and had lots of themes about life, priorities and sacrifice. There was mystery, some thrills, and man, the sun just seemed SO hot and they handled that idea very well. The idea that they could be vaporized if something went wrong was very tangible, always hanging over our head. The issue with this movie, and I know I'm not alone in this thought, is that the ending has some major issues. The main one is that they probably tried to add too many thrills to a serious movie. It...

⭐ 10.0/10 (Originally written by Beans) Yes, I was one of the brave souls who ventured out to watch this. 10/10. No notes.

⭐ 9.5/10 (Originally written by Tim) This is an incredible movie that is basically a French courtroom drama. Husband dies in what appears to be an accident, wife is accused of murder, trial begins. Simple premise, amazing execution. Oh, they also have a partially blind son and a great dog. So the opening of this movie is so confusing, and I thought amazing, something you keep coming back to as the movie continues. And as the trial continues layers keep being peeled back and you see/hear things that had me constantly changing whether I thought she was innocent. The lawyers are fantastic, one you are rooting for and the other is so incredibly hate-able. It's in a gorgeous setting, in a language that sounds great when people are arguing in it. So many excellent elements to this movie. I thought the central question of whether this wife and mother was innocent was so compelling. She reacts to things in such an intellectual way, very counter to what you would expect of someone in...

⭐ 7.0/10 (Originally written by Tim) Compared to season one of True Detective this is an absolute bomb. It's only six episodes, and I watched the whole thing and wanted to find out what happened, so even though I will probably talk like this is the worst thing ever it wasn't terrible. I thought the atmosphere was amazing here. We are in Alaska during the period of total dark, and it feels creepy and remote in the same way the swamps of Louisiana did in the first season. The people of this town, the design of the different houses and vehicles and all that, I thought they nailed the setting, 10/10. True Detective dabbles in the supernatural, and this show went fully supernatural at many points, something I didn't love. It just didn't seem to have the nuance, where are other seasons are more smartly written (except 2, which I barely consider a real show). I read that this show was originally just called Night Country, and HBO was like, cool, but can you make it True Detect...

⭐ 8.0/10 (Originally written by Tim) Yorgos Lanthimos makes crazy movies, and this once is somehow more bizarre than the rest. Emma Stone plays a woman who commits suicide while pregnant, but her body is revived by putting the brain of the baby into the mom's body. So she is growing and learning rapidly but in an adult's body, kind of like a female toddler Frankenstein's monster. I'll say off the top the set design is unique and great, and I loved the oddball music throughout. Emma Stone is amazing in such a weird performance - its hard to imagine signing on to a role like this. She is the star, but Mark Ruffalo is maybe the standout, I thought he was so funny as this insecure pompous arrogant jerk. So its worth mentioning that this movie is like 50% sex. Bella, Stone's character, quickly learns about pleasuring herself, and quickly becomes fascinated with it. She has a lot of naivety, wondering why everyone doesn't just do that all the time, and quickly does ex...

⭐ 10.0/10 (Originally written by Joseph) This was our Valentine's romance movie this year, and of course it was amazing. It's the exact kind of romance movie that I love and it gets to me every time. (For the record, Jess only "liked" it, but she's wrong and chooses inferior valentines movies). So in this one, two kids in Korea were very obviously made for each other, but circumstances seperate them and it's a long time until they reconnect. When they do, the chemistry is still there, but being together is not so simple. I love these stories of real adults having to make hard decisions about love - especially when it feels deeper than just sexual attraction as this one does. It's super artfully made, this being the debut film from Celine Song. I loved it. The two leads are fantastic, and the chemistry feels super palpable. It's hard not to root for them. It's slow and drawn out and authentic and man, I just felt for those two. I had tiny little nit...

⭐ 8.5/10 (Originally written by Will) I'm not done the season yet, but I'm reviewing it anyway because it's been fun. I mean, if you like Japanese Samurai stuff that's gorgeously animated, super not for children, and avoids most of the cliche stuff that's typical of the genre, anyway.

⭐ 8.5/10 (Originally written by Joseph) I lost my 10,000 word Weview of this book, so I'm gonna just do a 5000 word point-form list of major takeaways. 1. This was the first time the Church sanctioned fighting. Now rather than it being simply justified, you could get into heaven by simply dying a miserable death in the near-East 2. This book told both the Christian and Muslim perspectives. Muslims perceived Christians as uncivilized savages. Interesting... (they were right) 3. This booked helped shape my knowledge of Medieval Muslims where it was either missing or wrong. One episode that stood out to me was that after Christians slaughtered every Muslim while taking Jerusalem, Saladin let them take their things and go when he took it back 4. Richard the Lionheart is an incredibly hard name. And yes he was a certified Chad. And boy was he evil. 5. The end of the Christian side was so incredibly dark. The start never had any justification, but in the end it was clear there was never ...

⭐ 7.5/10 (Originally written by Joseph) This was a movie that Jess chose that I'd never heard of before. It's old, and it didn't review particularly well, but it does have Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins, so it's not like we're the first people to ever watch it. It's a movie about Hopkins and his sons moving to the wilderness in the 1910s, where they proceed to make some questionable decisions, especially when it comes to romance. This movie is for sure a little silly. It's very dramatic, with lots of sweeping shots of Brad Pitt with flowing hair, while beautiful orchestral pieces swell in the background. The romances are super ridiculous, and there is lots of Indigenous pseudo-spiritualism that feels a little over-sincere. However! There is still a little magic here that I couldn't help but be drawn to. First off, this movie is absolutely gorgeous. It's filmed in BC, but the setting is Northwestern US. The main characters live on a ranch, and every pa...

⭐ 7.5/10 (Originally written by Joseph) I should clarify that both this and the first movie I watched with my nephew. I definitely wouldn't say these are healthy for adults to watch alone. But this one is actually good! I swear it! Okay, again, definitely would be a 0 for non-fans. But for fans of the franchise, there is plenty to love here. Again, the animation/art/music/voice work is all classic and nostalgic, and in my opinion the best it ever was. 90s Pokemon is wonderful. Team Rocket also comes in and is good for like 4-5 laughs. I am also impressed that this movie (and the show) are translations because they rely a lot on word play. So A+ to the translators. But the movie is actually not bad! A good premise: a rich, evil collector going for the ultimate trophy, only to get the unintended consequences of throwing the climate out of whack. Some nice stuff with prophecy, tradition, etc. and then I think Lugia has a sweet design, and a really enchanting sound. Make him like a blu...

⭐ 6.5/10 (Originally written by Joseph) Fun fact about this movie: as a Pokemon lifer, I'm not sure I've actually seen this movie. I wasn't allowed as a kid, and I don't think it's ever been on a streaming service. However, I did read the novel adaptation like 50 times in the school library. Anyways, this movie sucks. Does that make me relieved to know that I didn't miss out as a kid? No! Because I would have loved it as a kid! It's incredibly melodramatic, with Mewtwo being that ultimate emo, but this is what kids movies are all about. Mewtwo literally doesn't have a normal line in this movie. It's all super *deep* and philosophical. It actually seems like a emo highschool kid wrote this. Destiny, enslavement, power, determinism. It's all here baby! So yeah, I could say this movie tries to do way too much in its 74 min runtime, but who really cares. No Pokemon fan can truly say bad things about this. I think the art is beautiful, but that might ...

⭐ 7.5/10 (Originally written by Beans) This is a really good, terrible movie. You know the kind. I can’t in good conscience recommend it but I enjoyed watching it and was giggling. It’s about Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell having a meet cute but through the miscommunication trope end up overhearing each other say things they don’t mean and hate each other. Fast forward and they are both in a wedding party for their friends in Australia and pretend to be a couple so their friends and family will lay off them. I actually think Sydney Sweeney is a good actress, and I hate to be that guy, but she is truly mesmerizing. I would just love to see her in something more.. better. She says “bro” about 5 too many times for my liking but I can forgive her. The location was beautiful and there were some funny parts. This movie also broke up Glen Powell’s marriage and for good reason! If my partner was doing scenes like that with Sweeney I’d leave him. Anyway, a fun dumb little romcom that I enjoyed ...

⭐ 10.0/10 (Originally written by Beans) Two international movies in a row and both starring Sandra Huller!! Who is this guy? Call me Mr. worldwide. This is a French movie that follows the trial of a man who’s died and the wife, Huller is the main suspect. The main witness is their visually impaired son. I really liked this movie. It was very gripping and unpredictable. Huller was really captivating and easily stole the show. But the son was also unreal and the sexy lawyer was awesome. This movie kind of explores truth and what that means when there isn’t sufficient evidence. I feel like currently it’s a particularly topical subject and this movie does a great job addressing it.

⭐ 9.0/10 (Originally written by Joseph) So after loving Overcooked 2, we moved on to the original. And yeah, just a phenomenal recipe for a game (see what I did there?). Great way to force cooperation, a game that makes you feel smart, is challenging yet manageable once you lock in. Honestly Jess and I are Overcooked experts now, and we can AT LEAST 2 star most levels on our first try. With that said, this game has a wonkier scoring system, where it's very easy to get 2/3 stars on most levels, but nigh impossible to get 3 even on a perfect run. So I dunno, it just felt like we were always trying to get our 2 and move on. But yeah, this game is just a slight downgrade from it's successor. That game is just a little tighter, has better scoring, more clever puzzles, and then has the throwing mechanic which is tiny but adds a bit of fun chaos. But this one has some great, unique levels, and also some banging songs. That pirate ship? Let's go! So if you're looking for a grea...

⭐ 8.0/10 (Originally written by Joseph) After watching Monarch, I saw an ad for this show on Apple TV and basically I just said to Jess, hey that looks cool, let's watch? I mean, when's the last time you just saw an ad for a show and then watched it?? What is this, 2009?! Well anyways, this show was pretty good. It has a great concept: a bunch of people live inside a mysterious underground Silo, suspecting that the world outside is dangerous, but not knowing for certain. They have no idea who built the Silo, or why the world is uninhabitable, or how long they have to stay. Then some people discover some ancient artifacts that hint that everything is a sham and the outside world is perfectly safe, and yet are being forced inside... Cool right? Throw in some shady murders, secretive power structures, and psychological mind games, and we have ourselves a very cool mystery-box thriller! The set design is also really great, with kinda a steam-punk, dystopian feel. The costumes look ...

⭐ 8.5/10 (Originally written by Beans) This is a seemingly mundane German movie about the lives and goings on about a family whose father and husband is the commander of Auschwitz. The house shares a fence with the camp, yet there’s no showing of violence or gore, and the only atrocities we become aware of is smoke coming out of stacks and yelling and shooting. This movie was gripping and jarring yet very unassuming. I was engrossed the whole time but not because it was super interesting, rather because of the implications of the characters on screen and they’re actions - or rather, non-actions. Some of the visual choices felt really creative. The screen fading to a just a solid colour we stare at for a few seconds too long. The scraping music. A few flash forwards to present day. Again, this movie wasn’t not interesting, it just meant more because of what was going on around them. I think the most compelling thing about this movie was that it is a direct mirror to current life. I’ve a...

⭐ 9.0/10 (Originally written by Joseph) This is a little German indie film about a family in the 1940s. It's very day-in-the-life, and you get lots of long shots of the family playing the in lake or talking about their garden. There is a little drama when the husband gets a job transfer and has to leave his family, but it's okay because he does a good job and gets to come home. Oh, and one small detail - his job is running the Auschwitz concentration camp. So yeah, that's the whole point of the movie. I keep seeing the heading "the banality of evil," basically a discussion on how we compartmentalize our lives and tuck away the evil things we do. The whole time the family is discussing gardens and promotions, you see billowing smoke in the background as hundreds of Jews are being incinerated. Sometimes you hear gunshots and shouting, but there is no violence or aggression. The workers don't even talk about killing, but simply efficiently getting "loads...

⭐ 7.5/10 (Originally written by Tim) So I felt a bit obligated to watch this one, because my lead at work's sister produced it, it has been nominated for Best Animated Film, and he gets to go to the Oscars with her! He has been championing this movie forever and its about time I watch it. It was fine. Its a kids movie. I find Nimona very annoying and over the top, and the humour is all jokes you have heard a million times. I could image little kids laughing their heads off, for me it was kind of boring. But the world is actually very cool! It's like a medieval world with knights and monsters, but modern, with phones and flying cars and stuff. Its never explained and that's totally fine, I think its super creative and interesting to look at. The setup and plot is great, the voice acting is pretty good, high quality across the board (minus the jokes). Anyways, I will tell my lead its 10/10, but really I just think its not for me. If you have kids they might enjoy it!

⭐ 8.0/10 (Originally written by Tim) It's always a treat going back to The Realm of the Elderlings, and while I think the Rain Wilds Chronicles is probably the least-good series in this world it still has a lot to offer. This is the 11th book in for me, so the plot is complicated, but I have been enjoying how focused these books are, a main cast of characters that are together most of the time. I think the evolving relationship of the humans with the dragons is super unique, and I love how they are rediscovering things and powers that people long ago in this world took for granted (Sanderson leans on that a lot in his books too). This book had a great arc from start to finish, basically an exploration down a river looking for a lost city. My major complaint is that every single character is super concerned about who they are going to sleep. There is a bit of a feeling like they are kind of forming a new civilization, as they are all outcasts who have been sent on this journey basic...

⭐ 8.0/10 (Originally written by Tim) I was a big defender of this show while it was airing, but I actually never finished it because it felt repetitive, so here we are. First season is great, not amazing. Mainly I think this suffers from the Parks and Rec issue where the main character is so annoying. Jake is so immature and honestly not that funny. Boyle and Holt get a lot of great punchlines, and I think the rest supporting cast is great too (can't say I love Terry Crews though). But this is Samberg's show, and while I love everything he does this character is just too annoying. I do have faith that it will balance out though, like all sitcoms, and I remember some upcoming episodes that I loved.

⭐ 7.0/10 (Originally written by Beans) There was a lot of hype around this show when it was first announced. Rick, the author was heavily involved with writing and directing and casting, so it was sure to be a hit. I still can’t quite articulate it but this show was never great. It was good at its best but just fine most of the time. This show kind of suffered from movies having been made first. So while the movies were terrible, there were a few great moments. I found myself comparing the two and was never satisfied. The pacing always felt off and it just never wowed me. I thought the casting was really great, some of the CGI was cool too. If I’m being honest, if I made a show about Greek gods I would find the sexiest people alive and cast them, but they went a different route that I thought was good. I will definitely watch more seasons out of loyalty but ya, just not super impressed.