johnke.meBabygirl
I’m delighted that Hollywood has started embracing sex again but I feel like I was oversold on how horny this film was. Not nearly as torrid or thrilling as it seems to think it is.
Moana 2
Apparently this started life as an episodic TV show for Disney+ and was hastily retrofitted into a full-length movie and oh boy can you can feel it. The obvious TV adaptation structure pokes through pretty hard, especially in the first half of the film. The songs, in particular, feel shoe-horned in. They’re completely forgettable and have no magic and really cement the feeling that we’re hitting the Aladdin: The Return of Jafar level of rushed cash-grabbery.
But what do I know? I asked my kids (9 and 6) if they thought this was better or worse than the original Moana and they said “much better” and they absolutely loved Maui’s “Can I get a Chee Hoo” song.
Take from that what you will.
Newly discovered fungal species makes zombies of cave spiders on island of Ireland »
Cool cool cool cool cool cool cool cool.
This is the Tom Green Documentary
At the beginning of the film, Tom Green almost goes out of his way to point out how artificial documentary filmmaking is, how by documenting something, you’re changing it so you’re not getting the true, authentic thing. It feels like he’s preparing an excuse so he, the most ironically detached man on the planet, doesn’t have to actually be sincere here.
As a result, I’m not sure if the film teaches us anything real about Tom Green, or about what drives him. It’s bookmarked by his big move out from Los Angeles and out to some farmland in Canada and we aren’t actually told the reasons for the move (I guess we can infer something about mental health but this is mostly speculative?)
All the same though, Tom Green is an entertainer that doesn’t get enough credit and sometimes it’s enough to be given just a quick reminder of all the great things he’s done.
Unplatform | The definitive guide for escaping social media »
Unplatform is an interactive guidebook, online library, and recommendations database intended to help you escape social media and join the indie web.
A great set of resources to help people of all levels of technical expertise detach from the modern web. Or, as they put it “return to web 1.5”. I really like that as a phrase.
A Real Pain
I enjoyed my time with A Real Pain. It’s a Kieran Culkin type character (conveniently played by Kieran Culkin) bouncing around Poland with a Jesse Eisenberg type character (conveniently played by Jesse Eisenberg) and the whole film is brought to life by Kieran Culkin’s natural effervescence. Everything else ‐ literally everything else ‐ exists in service to his performance. Which is both good and bad. It’s fun to watch him cook but feels like the rest of the film suffers a little. Like, this is Jennifer Grey’s first major role in decades and she’s got nothing to do except be a foil for Culkin in like two scenes. Feels like a lot of missed opportunities got missed because they were just so focused on Culkin Culkin Culkin.
And that’s fine. Like I said, I enjoyed it. He’s got buckets of charm and, more importantly, he’s also got the chops to pull off the occasional emotional gasp when it’s needed.
But if you were to ask me what the film is about beyond this, I’d struggle. I guess it’s trying to say “people sure are complicated!”? There’s a few other things I can see it reaching for but not quite succeeding. Although I accept this might also be a cultural thing and if I was Jewish or American, I might see this film differently?
Regardless, this is still a solidly entertaining hangout film.
Times Square
Wonderful, vibrant performances completely let down by a lazy, lifeless screenplay. Robin Johnson and Trini Alvarado give some of the best on-screen depictions of proper angsty punk teenage rebellion almost in spite of a screenplay that doesn’t know what to do with the characters beyond some surface level bullshit.
Interesting how you can really see the bones of Empire Records here though!
Physicists figure out the perfect Cacio e Pepe recipe | Popular Science »
This isn’t wildly different from Kenji Lopez Alt’s advice, but I’ll use any excuse to add to my cacio e pepe tag.
2025-01-25
What I’m Reading
Finished Perfect Organism: An Alien Isolation Companion by Andy Kelly. He says he wants it to be like a director’s commentary on a film, but for a video game. Definitely for obssessives though. He really gets into the minutiae.
Currently reading We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, which is one of the books that inspired Orwell’s 1984 and holy cow does it show. Very similar books except We is so very, very Russian. So it’s a tougher read than I was expecting. Looking forward to something light after I’m finished.
What I’m Watching
My wife and I have started a rewatch of The Sopranos. (Confession time! I say ‘rewatch’ here but I’ve never actually watched beyond the pilot episode. So it’s a first-time watch for me.)
With the passing of David Lynch, I’m also rewatching (actual rewatch this time) of Twin Peaks. It still holds up.
What I’m Playing
Accidentally picked up a Balatro addiction. Oops! Now I finish off every evening with a quick round. Not sure if I’m actually getting any better at the game though! Feels weird to really enjoy playing something that doesn’t have an obvious and noticeable improvement path, but here we are.
What I’m Enjoying
I hate to be that guy but I’ve noticed a bit of brightness creeping into the evenings and it’s cheering me up. We’re gonna make it!
Also just before Christmas, I picked up a Bambu A1 printer and I’ve been really enjoying churning things out for that. My daughter had a Taskmaster Junior themed birthday party a couple of weeks ago and it’s been great being able to make unique little things to elevate the party, like Taskmaster Stamps for the tasks.
Sing Sing
The screenplay suffers from being a little too contrived and Save The Cat-y. The injected emotional drama in the second half never felt believable and ironically achieved the opposite result by detaching me from the emotionality of the story. But my goodness, the performances are incredible. Colman Domingo holds everything together with some genuine movie star magic, but the semi-/non-professional performances are the real beating heart of the film.
Astonishing.