What movies have you watched this week?

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me – It's weird but so was the show so I recommend it

Invasion of the Astro-Monster (1965)

It was decent, but definitely not as strong as the first few Godzilla movies. Godzilla certainly fell a long way from unstoppable killing machine to dancing a jig after punching Ghidorah. The Planet X plot was pretty good and the aliens were cool at the start, but became pretty predictable by mid-film. Otherwise, the monster battle was just a retread of the last film, but without Mothra.

Flow - An incredibly beautiful animated film that really made me care for non-human characters without having a single word in the entire film.

Memoirs of a Snail - Misery porn. I loved Mary and Max but this was just incredibly well made misery porn. I had high hopes and did feel a bit let down at the end.

Cirque De Freak: The Vampires Assistant - lmfao

I like to watch not-so-great movies while folding laundry. Something that doesn't require my full attention and where it doesn't matter if missed something. I've been going through to Final Destination movies lately. This week I watched the last one: Final Destination 5. It's.... not as good as the first four 😄

We watched Slay, a 2024 camp horror comedy where a group of drag queens who booked the wrong venue have to defend the bar and its biker patrons from a horde of vampires.

It's silly, but with some very charming characters, lots of references to other cult vampire flicks, and kept us laughing throughout. A cult classic in the making.

I watched The Princess and the Frog for I think the first time since it came out.

It was really lovely and sincere in a lot of ways that I feel like I haven't seen lately. Although, like many Disney movies, I feel like everything moves too fast in terms of falling in love and big plot elements, etc. But I understand why it's done like that.

Still, very good movie. 8/10 for me

Saw The Menu a couple days ago. It was absolutely brilliant.

Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise & Fall of Jack Johnson

Man was defiantly himself in spite of literally everything stacked against him. Married white women during and after knocking out great white hopes. Legend.

"I have found no better way in avoiding race prejudice than to act with people of other races as if prejudice did not exist."

I watched Cuckoo - it was an entertaining, wild ride.

We watched A Real Pain and Queer. Both great films imo

The Lighthouse (Eggers). Fucking great! I expected more of a horror thing going in, which kinda ruined a bit, so I had to rewatch it again to get into the vibe more. And yea, love that film and will definitely watch it again at some point. What a second entry after The Witch from Eggers!

London (2005) & Ghost Cat Anzu (2024)

London isn’t quite the movie I expected it to be. I watched it because I’m a Crystal Method fan. I was not expecting a very young Chris Evans and Jason Statham. Nor was I expecting how well they played off each other.

An interesting story about shitty people who actually want to be better people and told almost exclusively through flashbacks and exposition. It ends way better than a you’d think a movie like this would end.

Ghost Cat Anzu is the most Ghibli not-Ghibli movie I’ve ever seen. Beautiful and slightly-unconventional art style, especially the use of shading. But also excellent “camera” work making cel animation behave like real camera movements (tracking a character as they walk across a scene, for example).

Beyond the artistic beauty, what makes it Ghibli is the plot and pacing. It centers around a supernatural journey taken by the child of a delinquent, widowed father who get dumped in the countryside while dad tries to work off his debt with shady people. It isn’t a long movie but it takes its time with everything and isn’t afraid to be funny and serious (sometimes at the same time). If you like Ghibli and movies that center around child heroes, I highly recommend it.