A real branding issue.

Mo S1 — 3.5/5

Largely enjoyable, though not as much a comedy as it is both a fiery and informal look into another culture. I have a soft spot for those. 

Smile, you son of a bitch.

Jaws — 4/5 (rewatch)

What strikes me most about this rewatch is how much of this movie feels like it's just a step above a TV movie. Everything about it is an example of something poorly made, done well. There is no large character arc with anyone involved, just a lot of texture in who those characters are. Shaw doesn't change, Hooper doesn't change, Brody doesn't change—but 'who they are' is very identifiable and pinpoint-able. They are rich. They are islands on a map. The plot is paper-thin: shark attacks > go kill shark. And then when the shark appears, despite the dun-DUN of it all, it appears so casually. It is just a thing that exists beneath the waves, slicing through water. The fear of the Leviathan isn't that it is coming for us; it is that it is already here, just below us. The movie has a confidence in how big it needs to be in order to work. It doesn't need to push on the primal nature of it all, just press. And, of course, that "confidence" is just an accident, a byproduct of unpredictable machinery. That's just how it goes, you know, you know. 

And, plus, my own theory of successful horror movies is laid out in this movie — "will it make you afraid to _________ again?" Freddy Krueger > "fall asleep," Jason Voorhees > "go to summer camp." Any time I walk into the ocean, I scan the horizon. 

Hope

is a deferment of responsibility.

The back row is asleep.

Opus — 2.5/5

The 'Menu' but for music critics, I guess? Feels derivative, 'Midsommar' on down, but also has that A24 weaponized cinematography that makes you want to forgive aspects of it because it knows the language of making a movie just well enough to make you think you're watching something compelling unfold. But nah, it's just a collection of images and ideas—interesting ideas! But just the starts of somethings.

Grip it and rip it.

Happy Gilmore 2 — 1/5

In the beginning of the movie, he kills his wife by hitting his golf ball too hard. What a weird, dark way to start a comedy. Every time there's a callback, they show the clip from the original movie. What a strange, awful way to film a movie. The best thing I can say about this movie is how it simply does not matter and I will forget it exists, and that I ever watched it. 

It's okay if you don't love it anymore.

The Bear S4 — 3.5/5

Still a container for big highs, but the lows are feeling lower. Carmy has transformed into Sad Sack: The Man, while there's an increasing focus on Syd who is... I think the least compelling person in the show? Her drama is having to live with everyone else's drama; her interesting is being surrounded by everyone else's interesting. Meanwhile, Richie continues to grow as a human, to the point where the series feels like it would be better served to shift its focus more to him. As he says, very beautifully, very profoundly—he is not the large rocks that make up the architecture of existence, he is the sand that connects them. And then lol the last episode tries to center him more and it doesn't quite feel genuine, oops. I guess the point of sand is not to be the center ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Cool, lesson learned. This show, in its fourth season, starts to move away from those 'Ted Lasso' comparisons I was forcing on it in its previous seasons ("what it means to be a manager"), and moves towards "what it means to create a community," and the uncomfortable truth that lies within that: community is created within chaos, but can community survive the chaos that creates it? We become inextricably entwined, diamonds created within the pressure, while desiring to escape the vice grip hold it has over us. It has to be easier, right? Maybe. But also, then again—maybe not. 

Ambassadors for style and grace.

The Last Showgirl — 1/5

Stunt-casting at its best, and that's all. It's hard to separate whether Pamela Anderson is good in this, or just appropriate for it? Jamie Lee Curtis is really over-acting her way out of the past few years of goodwill? Dave Bautista's not bad? Sure, whatever, I don't know, man, it's just fucking boring. It's trying to be this Kodak light-leak of a movie; nothing to say, it just wants to show off how pretty it is. There was enough of a ground for this movie to have built something substantial: fading industry, the line between artistry and pornography, careers built on youth, the waylaid souls who wish to preserve time and beauty within amber. But it's just a tease of that, an hour and a half trailer for a more interesting movie. By the end, there is no growth, just the same tired delusion. I don't vibe with that shit. Eck. I'd love to have something interesting to say about this, but it did not lay anything at my feet. 

Do you still have faith in people?

Squid Game S3 — 3/5

Aw. I love the 'Squid Game' format. It, like 'Survivor,' is an infinitely repeatable format. New people, new inventive games, and a scooch closer to the truth at the heart of it. Had they just embraced this as a long-form show, I would have continued to enjoy it for years on end, and so much expectation wouldn't have been riding on it to end well. Oh well! Calling this a S3, instead of a back half to S2, does this season a disservice (while also doing that season a service) as, just a couple episodes in, the people we were left with weren't the people we had grown most attached to. The North Korean guard and the boat people were, ultimately, just stories that forked off of the story we cared about, without coming back to meet. And the story we cared about was now filled with people we barely knew. And a baby!!!! Who we have to be attached to because it's a baby, right? ¯\ _(ツ)_/¯ So much of Squid Game — unlike, say, Walking Dead, and its repeating cycles of 'every good thing we do only ends up hurting us' — was this cynical world that had very deep shades of hope in it. But by the end, who grows? What changes? We're just stuck in this cynical world of repeating cycles. The only thing gained is money. I suppose, for Hwang Dong-hyuk, the only way to stop it was to stop it. But, perhaps unfortunately for him, he introduced an idea, and you can't put a cork in that bottle. 

This review was chaotic, I'm sorry. I had a lot of thoughts I couldn't thread together. Oh well!