2023 January
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This was very, very good. I wasn't sure what to expect; I thought it was going to be some stabby serial-killer thing, but the whole black comedy vibe and the rising tension were executed very well. Ralph Fiennes gives an excellent performance as the chef delivering the menu.
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EEAAO is so different from the usual Oscars fare I can only imagine all the Oscars people sitting at a table and looking at each other in disbelief. "Really? We're really nominating this?!?"
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I like this new CGI animation style, everything looks cool. The plot is pretty by the numbers for a DC thing, but the banter between the boys is great.
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Didn't know what to expect but was pleasantly surprised. I thought it was going to be a straightforward, if slightly creepy, murder mystery set in the 1830s, but the last 20 minutes or so really blew me away. Excellent tone and atmosphere as well, really fits the events of the film. Some scenes seemed unnecessarily too dark though.
Christian Bale gave a good performance as usual, but Harry Melling was just excellent as Edgar Allan Poe. Also, I was surprised to learn only upon reading the credits that Gillian Anderson and Robert Duvall were in the film, I did not recognize them at all!
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I haven't seen this before, but that scene where Will is at a bar taking down some guy talking about economics? I've seen it on the internet so many times, I figured I should go watch the film already.
This film came out in 1997 when I was in maybe the 2nd year of college and I feel like back then I would not have appreciated the themes of talent, ambition, fear and regret that encompass Will's journey in this film.
I can see why it's regarded as a modern-day classic. The film alternates between light-hearted moments and gut-wrenching conflict. The script is excellent (Best Original Screenplay Oscar was well-deserved!) and Williams and Damon gave really good performances. I am not sure if Damon or Affleck have ever been in films this good since then.
Disappointed at no title drop. I wanted Sean to say at some point "That's good, Will Hunting."
2022 December
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It's the final weeknotes of the year! At first I thought I'd do this one tomorrow (the first of January) but I also plan to publish my year-in-review thingy, so I figured I'll just get this one out right before midnight, and next year's weeknotes can start fresh as a new series with maybe a different format. The World Kind of slow final news week actually. The best thing was Greta Thunberg owning some far-right guy so hard he got arrested for sex trafficking. (May or may not really be causally related). My Week I always enjoy the lull week
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I love these! First ran across Sleepy Skunk's yearly trailer mashups last year and watched all of the older ones and have been looking forward to this one.
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Maybe a little bit self-indulgent but I really enjoyed this one. A lot of the dialogue and banter was great and I like how the plot wrapped around itself. Hugh Grant here is the least Hugh Grant-like I've ever seen him.
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An ok whodunnit with 1.5 likeable leads, though trying to compare itself to Agathe Christie is a bad idea as the mystery here is nowhere near as clever. This is the first time I've seen Saoirse Ronan in anything.
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Hey, it's Christmas day! Waves at all who celebrate. And this will be my final weeknotes entry for the year! The World Eh, let's not think about the world for a bit and enjoy the season, no matter what shenanigans Elon Musk has gotten into this time. My Week The first few weeks of December were still a bit hot, but the last week or so has thankfully brought us the much-awaited hanging amihan (Northeast monsoon) which means our weather is a lot better and nippier even. Should last until late January or early Feb, this is my favorite weather -
One week before Christmas and the second-to-last weeknotes for the year! The World Science: The US announced a fusion energy breakthrough, supposedly a big step towards clean energy. Crypto: Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX has been arrested, weeks after the collapse of his crypto exchange. Twitter: Twitter dissolved their trust and safety council, then Musk banned elonjet, a bunch of critical journalists, and even links to Mastodon. Some intrepid reporter thought that the banned @joinmastodon Twitter account to Mastodon's "founder" John Mastodon, which quickly became a meme on the platform. PH: The much-criticized SIM registration law is set to take effect
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Trying to force weeknotes back into Sundays, at least for the last few entries of the year. The year ends on a Saturday though, so I'm still wondering if the Jan 1 weeknotes should be "Weeknotes 2023-01-01" or "2023 Weeknotes #1". How about "2023 Weeknotes #0", since it won't really cover the year 2023 yet? The World Still not paying too much attention to the world. It might be better overall for my mental health. Elon's Twitter seems to be going further into the right-wing conspiracy deep end based on these nonsense Twitter files exposes. The US exchanged an athlete
2022 November
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Getting tired of having to type the date all the time. Maybe starting next year's weeknotes I'll just number them from #1 to whatever like some other people do. The World It has certainly been a week, especially in tech. Musk's Twitter reorg continues, with all the accompanying chaos. I don't really want to recap everything, there are far better explainers out there. Hashtags like "#RIPTwitter" trended for a while following a wave of mass resignations after many refused his ultimatum to "go hardcore". Mastodon influx continues, and a lot of servers are having trouble keeping up. I have a
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The World Twitter chaos continues. Devs fired then re-hired. Features rolled out then rolled back. Mastodon userbase has grown at least 300% in the interim. US midterm elections last Tuesday, and surprisingly, Democrats managed to hold the Senate, and the House is still in play. The prophesied "red wave" did not come to pass. My Week Had a fairly good week! A bit productive even. Got to do some work on side projects. Went out for a movie. Not really a sporty guy, but on Saturday my brothers invited me to go play badminton with them. It was nice, not
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Wakanda Forever is the final MCU phase 4 film I think? No spoiler-free reviews for this one. This post will have a lot of unmarked spoilers. The big question was how they were going to address Chadwick's passing. I thought the treatment was both very respectful and the worst they could do given the terrible circumstances. I mean, I was kind of worried they would have him cameo via CGI or such (like Tarkin or Leia in Star Wars), which would have felt cheap and disrespectful. Most of the movie was pretty good. Some great fight scenes especially early on
2022 October
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Watched Catch Me If You Can last night. Actually over two nights. Been meaning to see this for a while, it looked neat.
Frank Abagnale's capers are largely entertaining, though the narration does feel heavily exaggerated in favor of the protagonist (and reading through Abagnale's wikipedia entry suggests so as well). DiCaprio and Hanks give great performances here and I really enjoyed how they spoke every Christmas became friends by the end.
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Enjoyed Black Adam, despite the poor critic reviews. The plot isn't anything spectacular, but it's a fun romp and good for comic fans.
Was very happy to be correct that the actress playing Adrianna was Shaw from Person of Interest! She should have gotten higher billing. Brosnan gave a great performance as Fate. The VFX guys really loved Cyclone. Atom Smasher probably my favorite of the JSA crew. The Rock maximizing the use of his one "smoldering" look.
Viola Davis, Jennifer Holland, Djimon Hounsou, and [surprise mid-credits actor cameo] reprising roles were welcome surprises.
The only character I didn't actually like was Hawkman, mostly because (a) Hawkman is a terrible character; and (b) this version seemed even worse than usual (why is he rich?), and for some reason they chose him to be head of the JSA!
Overall IDK about changing the hierarchy of power or whatever, but I think a pretty decent step forward for the DCEU.
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Watched Bullet Train tonight. Was quite entertaining. I came in not knowing anything that wasn't in the very first trailer. A colorful action film with some fun twists and surprising cameos. I really liked the soundtrack too, especially Japanese song covers.
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I recently published a long-ish blog plost about the Hulk and New Mutants comics. And also I haven't watched any new movies lately, so I took the opportunity to knock a couple of related items off my "poorly-reviewed comic book movies" list. Hulk (2003) I wonder [what] Ang Lee [was thinking when he made a] Hulk [film]. "Ah, yes. I, critically acclaimed serious director Ang Lee, have something to say about the Hulk." a friend Eric Bana and Ang Lee's Hulk film honestly wasn't even that bad, though there are certainly some poor choices made in the film. I think
