The Furious

It's been almost fifteen years since The Raid and I have felt every single day of it, I promise you. Not since has there been a movie with such ambitious, wall-to-wall action and talent until The Furious. What's more is that there is so much diversity in disciplines, backgrounds, and ethnicities in this movie. The type of Martial Art practiced by each character actually tells a lot about their story, not just ethnically, but socioeconomically as well. It's really underrated and I hope other people can get what I got out of it in that way. The one thing I did struggle with is one single or a few individual iconic and unforgettable moments. The movie gave you very little room to breathe to place any moment over the others in hierarchy of drama and effect.

Send Help

Sam Raimi has to be one of my favorite directors ever. He does such a great job of selling us his world and just having flat out fun whether we care or not. The very over-the-top Sam-like moments in this movie are my favorite. The way this movie ping-pongs from believable to unbelievable is a wonderful way to pace the movie as a whole.

Backrooms

I had a very interesting relationship with this movie. Years ago, I had listened to an album by The Caretaker that features a canvas with blue tape on the cover. When I saw that same tape in a scene in Backrooms, I was absolutely freaked out. And then a song by The Caretaker played at some point in the movie and scared me even more. This has almost nothing to do with the movie itself, but was one of the most effective aspects of the movie as a whole for me.

The Scourge | Tai Ương

Another cool Vietnamese horror game that dives deep into character development. The environments and backgrounds are beautiful and bring back a lot of memories for me.

Project Hail Mary

Someone described this movie to me as "Space Optimism," which I just love. We need more of those. This movie really had it all. I laughed (a lot), I cried (a lot) and actually really liked Gosling's performance in this one. He had to act with his eyes a lot because he was often in a space suit and it really worked. This movie has a lot of anime-like moments. It's hard to explain. Something about the body language, clumsy-guy trope, and innocent humor. We really do need more sci-fi like this.

D2

First time playing D2 for Dreamcast. It's a shockingly ambitious, cinematic game. I love the art direction, character design and development, and quiet overall presentation of many of the levels.

Weapons

I love Julia Garner. I'll watch her do anything and be anyone. It's a treat to see her anywhere and I'm glad she was picked as the lead in this movie. I also love Benedict Wong in this movie and think he's so underrated as an actor. And we all know about Gladys. Enough has been said about her. What I really love about Cregger is his abiltiy to make me laugh at something awful and bizarre. I laughed nervously and out of fear, which is one of my favorite feelings.

Obsession

I like what this movie represents a lot more than what the movie is. What this movie accomplished from an industry perspective is amazing and I can't wait to see Hollywood unravel because of it. I like that this movie put the yute back in the theaters. I like the Youtube-to-theater pipeline. I like young creators. All of it. Everyone told me this movie would blow my shit back. It didn't. It was a great movie for sure and there's a lot to think about. The pacing and conversation was really natural to me. I didn't think anyone was acting illogically for the sake of plot, which is nice. Nikki's actress absolutely kills it, obviously. But yeah. I couldn't help but think about how this movie touches a lot on things I already saw in Silent Hill 2 and thought were more complex and horrific in that game. But that's to say this movie clearly draws from SH and more filmmakers with backgrounds in games is how we get things this good. It's not a complaint, it's just not as life altering as a story as people kept telling me it would be.

Bait

I love seeing Riz Ahmed do anything, he's a joy onscreen, even when he plays a deeply flawed character like this. This season suffers from not knowing if it will make it to an S2, so the pacing and amount of open vs closed ends is kind of all over the place by the time you get to the end of the season. It's actually hard to tell if another season is implied or not. Some things are resolved, some aren't. It's not really the point of the whole thing, but it's like those elements are introduced to be developed further or were supposed to be, you do get the sense of that. Nevertheless, again-- Riz is a joy to watch and I hope we get to see more of him or more of this.

THE GHOST IN THE SHELL

The discourse around this series is so exhausting. It's not that deep. This version is a lot closer to the manga and it also brings back a lot of familiar aspects of anime from the 90s that have gotten lost over time. Saru shows that those aspects are still charming, entertaining, and cool. It has a lot to say about what the 90s truly offered in the genre to shut down the uncslop v zoomer arguments that are being made about IPS like this. The series also opens discussions about how an IP can be stretched and shaped to form around fears and concerns of its exact time and place. The film was made around the same time as Terminator and Alien and shares the dark mood and now this series wraps itself around the mood, values, and aesthetics of this time while neither ofr them change the fundamental themes of GITS as a whole. Media. Important. Time. Context. Social commentary. Stories as history. Anyways, not that deep. It's a great show. Sakuga forever.

Dog Man

Nobody prepared me for how fucking sad this movie is, what the fuck? Everything I read about it called it wholesome and cute and fun, but it's deeply sad and I was holding a frog in my throat for 99.98% of this movie. It's still really good and it's not, NOT wholesome, but boy is this an emotional journey. This had me more distraught than Project Hail Mary. Fucked up. Really good if you feel like crying I guess.

Batman: Caped Crusader

(Still watching) I thought the first season of Batman: Caped Crusader was already very good. I wasn't completely bought in on how invested the first season was in certain characters and Harley Quinn's origins were a lil rushed and sudden for me, but first seasons always struggle with pacing. Season 2 is a revelation imo. It really is the grown up version of BTAS. It's more mature in interlocking interactions and violence, but retains Bruce Timm's ability to tell a concise and powerful story in a short amount of time and touch on very tough subjects with a lot of empathy and constructive criticism. I never really noticed how little Batman has to do with anything in every Bruce Timm version of batman. Thinking back to BTAS, he's actually not really in a lot of scenes. He doesn't speak much in BTAS, either. I thought he did, but that's my kid brain remembering it wrong. It's fascinating. He barely has anything to do with what's going on in this show, he's simply a catalyst that opens up character behaviors and stories. I actually.... love that. I love that. So glad this show is back, Timm is still the bible for this character, always has been.

Resident Evil 9: Requiem

I think RE9 did a lot of things right. The pacing was actually pretty good-- I didn't spend too much time scared shitless as Grace and I didn't spend too much being a dumbass as Leon. But I wanted to do both and I got to do both in a way that felt natural and well-timed. It's the right balance of spooky and goofy as RE should be. The ability to play in first person or over the shoulder on my own terms is also great. It changes the game, really. And Grace being who she is and in her situation is a great way to make the game scary as hell again. I think this is a great piece for the series and a return to form that I enjoyed. I don't think the villain was as iconic as previous ones, but I liked him a lot more than anything going on in 8. 4 stars.