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⭐7.5/10 A new Witcher book! I very rarely anticipate a new release by a living author this much, and yet I admit my expectations were a bit tempered by the fact that his last release was a bit of a dud. This is another standalone Witcher novel that follows Geralt, this time during his early days, learning the values he'd come to live by in the later novels.  I really wanted to love this book. During the early chapters, I was convinced that Sapkowski was back. Yes, the book was rather plotless and meandering, but it felt similar to those first short story collections. I admit the story lost me a little. I still think the book as a whole is good, or at least better than A Season of Storms, but this novel -- one that's rather short -- took me forever to read. It's kinda that bad cycle where the book doesn't grab you, so you take longer between sittings, so you forget some names and places, and soon you are both confused and uninvested.  Still, I think it's ...

⭐7.5/10 I was initially skeptical of this new Romcom featuring Cumberbatch and my girl Olivia Coleman because I am of the opinion that romcoms should feature funny actors. My skepticism was certainly not assuaged with the opening scene in which their therapist is aghast at hearing how they talk about each other. Can I just take a second to express my annoyance of how therapists are portrayed in every movie? We speak to mentally ill people every single day, we have heard a dark joke before!  Anyways, I admit that this movie eventually won me over. It's about Cumberbatch, a successful architect, marrying Coleman, a chill mom who owns a crappy restaurant, and they have a fun, relaxed marriage. But then Coleman's restaurant starts to take off at the same moment that Cumberbatch's career flatlines, and it creates a bunch of conflict in their marriage.  I admit I didn't think this movie was hilarious, but I did think it was a smart and witty examination of how suc...

⭐7/10 This is a zombie apocalypse movie that's a sequel to 28 Day Later which I watched earlier this year (I skipped the middle entry).  Like the title says, this one takes place 28 years after the outbreak, so it's a little bit of a unique take on the genre, though I'll admit it's nothing too crazy for people (like me) who have consumed a ton of zombie content. It's based in the Scottish Highlands where a small community continues to survive, but by now they are something closer to thriving. Still, not all their needs can be met in that colony, and so they have to travel outside of their walls where problems ensue. The primary goal of the characters is to meet up with a crazy doctor to help someone who is sick. Not a bad premise, especially because the doctor is super creepy and there is all sorts of mystery around him.  It's a good zombie movie. By now, the zombies are secondary, and the story is more focused on death and the human condition. Again...

⭐7.5/10 Becoming a Rome guy! I can't say I loved much of this book, especially to start. This is a look at the pre-imperial, Republic days, so essentially the formation of Rome until Julius Caesar. Not a lot of names I recognized, and not a lot of interesting stuff going on for a lot of this.  It really looks into the formation of Roman culture, the beliefs and traditions that eventually allowed them to take over the world. And what do you know! It's all awful! Based on slavery, subjegation of women, celebration of violence, all the ingredients on making the evil empire. Definitely a story about Rome where you are cheering against the main characters.  That said, I think it's still a good history course. I learned a ton, and the professor is pretty great.  You can kinda trace the progression, all these lucky, micro factors that eventually lead to what it led to.  I also thought the final few chapters were absolutely electric, with incredible drama that le...

⭐9/10 This is an ultra sad, feel bad-type movie. It's about Joel Edgerton as a lumberjack in early 20th century America as he deals with grief and changing times. The beautiful thing about this movie, though, is that he's not exactly in touch with his emotions despite being a good-natured, somewhat sensitive guy. He's not going to go on a long, pretentious soliloquy about the nature of being, and that is to the movie's credit.  I think this is Edgerton's most impressive performance that I've seen. He is quiet, understated, and consistent in his role. It's one of those roles where he really changes his voice and nature, fully a different character. The entire movie has a wonderful sense of melancholy, and Edgerton embodies this with a great sense of solitude.  A few other quick hitters: this movie is absolutely gorgeous, one of the prettiest movies I've ever seen, one made specifically for me. I thought William Macy kinda steals the show in ac...

⭐ 9.5/10 In the reviews for Bugonia and One Battle After Another I mentioned more than once how they are movies made for our current time. They are capturing what it feels like to be alive during the moment they were made, and because of that they have a lot of similarities, and are both very poignant to me. Eddington takes this to the extreme, taking place mid-COVID, a time we would all like to forget. I loved this movie. There are so many details that take you right back to that time, like piles of toilet paper and bottled water in the corner, or the anxiety of walking through a grocery store. That's where this movie starts, and then it unwinds into a conspiracy thriller that I did not expect. Pedro Pascal as the "liberal" mayor and Joaquin Phoenix as the "conservative" sheriff are so perfectly cast, and their conflict is a great representation of what all discourse was and is still like. I use the party alignment in quotes because for as political as this mo...

⭐3/10  0/2 on Christmas movies this year. Except this isn't even a Christmas movie! Don't be fooled by the title like Jess was.  This is about Queen Latifah living a boring, safe life until she finds out she has 3 weeks to live, and so she goes on a last holiday to live it up. I thought this movie was terrible. It's a comedy but not really funny at all, just a weird tonal mess. I also thought the moral of this story was bizarre. I know it's not trying to say much and just be a good time, but yeah, this had some crazy messaging.  Anyways who cares. This movie wasn't made for me and I didn't like it. Yet oddly Jess said she did? Her mind remains a mystery. 

This biography tells the story of Howard Ashman, the writer behind a ton of classic Disney songs. Up front, I don't think this was a good movie. The story is told completely through voice over of people that knew him, as you would expect, but almost all of it is behind still photographs. It teases you with some of the Disney songs, but we get barely any of that. Most of it is his time coming up through stage musicals, and also his fight with AIDs, which he actually died from at age 40.  Obviously important to his story, but I selfishly just wanted to watch videos of him cooking! This was the video I was aware of before starting this movie, what I was expecting to get more of, and honestly watching it makes me emotional. She is an incredible singer, but watching him pop into the frame and give this direction is pure genius. I remember when we were in Florence looking at Michelangelo's David, our tour guide said something I have heard many times since but was extremely profound t...

⭐4/10 Christmas movie season begins! This was one I discovered that I brought to Jess fully confident that she would love it. A sappy Christmas movie about Julie Andrews finding love late in life??  This movie is not good. In fact, if not for Julie Andrews, this movie would be a zero. It's about Andrews, a successful, sophisticated widow getting trapped in a log cabin, forced to spend a night snowed in with James Garner. The problem is that James Garner is the absolute worst person to get trapped with. It's hilarious because this is in 1999 where the things he says are probably meant to be a little old fashioned, a little out of touch, but in 2025 he has a cancelable offense every two seconds. Jess and I were gasping every scene as he says the wildest, most sexist things you've ever heard. This is a horror movie! The goddess Julie Andrews forced to spend the night with like, Lindsey Graham.  There is also another side plot that is absolutely bonkers, again with ...

⭐ 9.5/10 This might not be the best movie of the year, but its certainly my favourite so far. Teddy (Plemons) and Don kidnap a high powered CEO (Emma Stone), convinced that she is an alien, and attempt to find a way to her mothership to barter for the future of humanity. Pretty amazing premise that is apparently a remake of an older international film. Right off the bat Plemons and Stone are amazing. The performance of both of them has you going back and forth actually wondering if she is an alien. It would be easy to completely discount Teddy as an internet-addled conspiracy theorist, but he is smart and persuasive and completely sympathetic. My one main criticism is that we get some of his backstory, seeing the "trauma" that led to this event, and I think that could have been inferred instead of shown. However, those scenes are done very artistically, interludes that give this movie some artistic flair. I love how this movie feels perfect for a time like now, when our mind...

⭐ 9.5/10 It seems insane not to give this game a perfect 10/10 given the time and mental energy that I have devoted to it over the past couple months, but that's what happens when you are the game that comes after Silksong. This roguelike is exactly like the first, which was great, but with tons of different boons, enhancements, upgrade systems, and importantly 2 different paths you can take. It takes the foundation of the first game and improves on basically everything, a lot like Silksong! As someone who often shies away from creativity in gameplay this game encourages and rewards it, and nothing feels better than salvaging a run that feels lost through some new boon combinations you would have never tried otherwise. It really is a masterpiece in that way, seemingly endless build combinations that force you to change your play style and get better as a player. Not many games have me thinking about percentages and combos and how I want to tackle my next run, which makes it super ...

⭐8.5/10 A Remembrance Day classic! I actually started this movie... in the spring... and randomly remembered to finish it last week. I don't think the lapsed time should be much of an indicator because I thought this movie was awesome.  It's a remake of a 70s movie which is a remake of a 30s movie which in an adaptation of a novel that follows an innocent German solider who enlists to fight the French with his friends in World War 1. It's a classic war epic. They are optimistic, bright eyed and joking around, thinking about the adventure they're about to have, and then within days of getting to the front they have seen horrors that will last a lifetime.  I watched the 70s version of this movie as a high-school student and one scene in particular has stayed with me for nearly two decades. It is equally gut wrenching here. It is so simple, and such an obvious attempt to teach us about our common humanity, but effective in a timeless, classic way. It had me tea...

⭐ 10/10 Another reread, but this one was special. I have basically read a single page of this a day for the past year while my son gets ready for bed. Before I start he always has to see the first picture of Gandalf and Bilbo, then the second picture of Gandalf, then we flip back to the cover to talk about Smaug on his gold. He has also started calling The Shire theme from the LOTR movies the "Bilbo Song", so this is clearly a dream come true for me. It's hard to think about this book rationally, and there were several things that stood out to me that would not be acceptable in other fantasy books I read. Mainly, there are several instances where something happens that is never foreshadowed or hardly explained, and you just accept it because its a kids book. The raven for example, just happens to overhear, and oh ya they can talk and used to all the time, but only to one specific line of men, and oh ya here is this guy Bard who talks to his arrows (my favourite part) who...

⭐ 8.5/10 Our second movie with our two year old, I thought it would be a hit because he likes everything with wheels, but he was not very locked in, had to watch over multiple sittings. I remember exactly where and when I saw this for the first time, and I loved Pixar, so for some reason I liked this movie but didn't think it came close to some of the classics. Well I was wrong this movie is great, even if its a little long. Fun cast of characters, much like Toy Story or Bugs Life or all these Pixar movies, and they are all distinct and memorable. Guido is my favourite, and when he gets his moment to shine it is awesome. Lightning is a good protagonist, arrogant hotshot who gets humbled (much like Kuzco in my favourite Disney movie). There is a flashback montage scene that reminded me of Jesse's from Toy Story 2 where all of a sudden your eyes are watering. Nascar is the most boring thing in the world to me, but I love this world where everything has wheels.  Whenever I watch ...

⭐ 7/10 The first season of this show was background noise for me, and even though I tried to watch this with Jess I would often be on my phone. There are some funny parts, and the actors are charismatic, but this is like the Netflix equivalent of a CW teen show. Really corny stuff, cookie cutter setups, conflict that could be resolved by just talking. Pretty insane the amount of money Netflix throws at this though, filming all over LA, using music from all the biggest recent artists in the openings, renting the Academy museum for a ridiculous engagement party finale. I can't believe it. Again the CW feel of this can't be understated. Every time there is a good emotional scene of two people finally hashing it out they have to play soft slow music with lyrics in the background. It's so distracting, and it made me so upset, felt like they don't trust their viewers to be able to pay attention for an entire episode so they gotta underscore these important scenes that might ...

⭐8/10 Just an old-fashioned good movie. This is a 90s courtroom drama that Jess chose, and was Edward Norton's debut that nearly earned him an Academy Award. It's about this hotshot lawyer who takes on a case in which sweet little Edward Norton is accused of murdering a famous priest. There's lots of twists and turns as you learn more and more about all the people involved, all the complexities that make them up and complicate this crime.  It's good! There is nothing wrong with this movie. It's smart, it looks good, it's really well acted, especially by Norton. It keeps you guessing, keeps you interested, and I think the ending is super rewarding. It's definitely a little 90s in how earnest it is at times, but I kinda like that for a change.  Easy recommend. Might not blow you away, but sure to please. 

I'm a big fan of T. Kingfisher, and I stayed up late to finish her most recent release. More inspired by Snow White than a retelling, this is about the poison expert who's asked to help the poisoned Snow, but what's really going on is nothing anyone could have expected. This has all the hallmarks of Kingfisher's writing - an oddball FMC in her 30s, a unique premise, some horror elements, and a compelling romance subplot. And This might be my favourite combination yet!  YA horror that blew me away. It has dual timelines ten years apart, about Daisy facing an evil house, and Brittany investigating what happened to her. I loved how the haunted house story intertwined with complex mother-daughter relationships, forgotten Black girls, and friendships. And as a side note, it was so nice to have a book set in Canada and dropping so many Canadian references! This is a memoir written in the form of letters from the author to her son, from whom she's been separated. Homeira i...