Weapons (2025) 9.5/10 -
This movie was a fucking romp!! Me and my friends saw it on opening night which is something I don’t think I’ve ever done?? Was an extra strange experience cause I had this haunting feeling that I recognized the guy who played the main kids dad and it was bothering the shit out of me !! Where did recognize him from??? Then I remembered it was fucking Whitmer, who directed the She’s Leaving You video for Jake’s last album. So weird to know someone in a movie from real life. The context of the theater literally made him unrecognizable to me. Anyways…. incredible movie, had a wonderful time with my buddies.
The Thing (1982) - 9.5
It’s a classic for a reason fellas.
Highly influential scifi scary that obviously influences to this day. Someone online somewhere mentioned parts of Sinners from this year pay homage to this’n. The Faculty also references it alot, which is one of my faves <3
Epic performances, epic to watch with my lil friends, only downside is that they gotta kill some puppies that get infected in the movie (none actually harmed obvi) but that is just so brutal to watch to meeeee
Nosferatu (2024) 5/10 -
gorgeous but boring. 10/10 costuming though. I watched it on a plane which didn’t help cause I hate planes so so much. I need to watch the Herzog one, I think I’d like that one a lot better.
Exotica (1994) - 6/10
Free to watch on youtube here which is cooL!
Centered around a strip club with stories of its patrons and employees all intertwining
Entertaining but not life changing
The Fall in the House of Usher (2023) - 7/10
The last of the Mike Flanagan shows I was catching up on.
I thought this one was fine! Story of a shitty and cursed rich ass family. Felt a lil preachy at times which took me out of ‘er a bit.
Definitely entertaining but not life changing.
My official Flanagan ranking is:
Hill House
Midnight Mass
Usher
Bly Manor
America’s Team (2025) - 8/10
I’m not a sports person in general, it’s really hard to get me identifying with a team, even the Carolina Panthers or the Hornets. I wish I could though cause it is such a deep and instant way to bond with other sports people.
I DO however heavily fuck with the storytelling in the context of sports documentaries like “The Last Dance” and “America’s Team”. So emotional !!!!!! Drama !!! Hunger for power and victory !!!! Goofy ass characters <3
It’s about the Dallas Cowboys in the 90’s, which was my Poppop’s team hence the line in his namesake song Cliff: 'and my Dad picked a Dallas Cowboys urn to put your ashes in”. I thought of him a lot while watching this.
The Pitt (2025) - 8.5/10
I’m not really a medical drama person but I fucked w this.
It was reallly realllly good to watch while churning out a ton of handmade Wednesday shirts for a certain upcoming Rat related flea market hint hint
SO fucking intense and SO much going on but they still manage to flesh out a shit ton of characters. Idk how they pulled this thing off tbh that’s most of what I’m amazed at.
Apparently it’s pretty accurate to the experience of an actual ER. Another preachy-ish show, they really try to fit in EVERY relevant social issue… but I think most of their takes were good.
Apparently one of the actors is from Greensboro too… which …. yay!
Little Lazarus by: Michael Bible (2025)
Another entry into the Bibleverse that i adore! More winding and tender storytelling from the GOAT of Statesville, North Carolina. The way the pieces interlock is super satisfying.
If you like thinking about what exotic animals the rich could be hiding in the skyscrapers of NYC this one’s for you.
Novels in Three Lines by: Félix Fénéon (originally published in 1906)
This is a collection of very short (around 1 or two sentence) translated French newspaper stories written by the author and collected by his wife.
The section of the paper he was writing for was supposed to only give quick details and headline like delivery, but Fénéon uses the little space he has to inject poetry, twist a knife, and sometimes squeeze in a joke.
20th century short form content.
The guy seems like a legend in the literary scene that surrounded him at the time… and the mundane and accessible look into humanity so distant feeling is so neat.
So many people died in the street!!
Some of my favorites are:
“ “I could have done worse!” exultantly cried the murderer Lebret, sentenced at Rouen to hard labor for life. ”
and
“Schoolboys in Vibraye, Sarthe, attempted to circumcise a a child. He was rescued, although dangerously lacerated.”
and
“Louis Lamarre had neither job nor home, but he did possess a few coins. At a grocery store in Saint-Denis he bought a liter of kerosene and drank it.”
and
“Napoleon Gallieni, a stone cutter, broke his neck falling down the stairs. He may have been pushed. Either way he as taken to the morgue.”
Hour of the Star by: Clarice Lispector (1977)
Was not into this book for the first 40 pages or so… which is a lot for a book that’s under 200. Super dense and confusing start to this story, glad I stuck with it though cause once it got rolling I quite liked it! Once the book came to be more simply about the main character Macabea and her thoughts of her very simple life I had a much better/easier time reading it.
I’ve been trying to get into Clarice Lispector for a while cause I think she’s coool asf. Hour of the Star is the last novel she worked on before dying of ovarian cancer in the 70s. She is a huuuuuge influence on Brazilian literature, and her works are all in translation if they’re being read in English.
Death: The High Cost of Living by : Neil Gaiman (1993)
This was my first Neil Gaiman read. I thought it was just okay!
No spectacular takeaways from this particular story, and the main character was giving manic pixie in a very “90’s goth girl” way ! So it was a little hard for me to get out of that vantage point.
