Friday, July 31, 2020

My July in Media

July was a mixed bag, mostly lackluster but with a few surprising gems. Wait, that description actually goes for my entire life this month?

Rewatch
: Fright Night. Truly one of my favorite movies of all time.

Straight Up
I really wanted to like this movie, but...I think I hated it? The dialogue and main characters were exhausting. It had heart and I got what it was trying to do, but ultimately, it just made me tired and kind-of annoyed.

Rewatch: Super 8 (still an under-appreciated delight), Panic Room (I liked it less this time, but it's still  mid-level Fincher).

George Lopez: We'll Do It For Half
I grew up in Texas, where Spanish is integrated into a lot of things. My dad in particular, due to the environments he was raised in and has worked in, has always mixed slang Spanish into his vocabulary. So, I think I've always enjoyed George Lopez's specials because that casual back-and-forth between languages is familiar to me. Not all of his jokes are funny, but I get the humor behind all of them.

Abducted in Plain Sight
This documentary is freaking bananas. You should have to take some sort of gullibility test before you have children.

Rewatch: Spotlight. I rewatched this on Election Day to get myself psyched about the importance of journalism before working until 2 a.m. It worked.

Palm Springs
I liked this movie. I thought it was cute and also Andy Samberg is cute and could have good chemistry with a rock. I can't fault it for anything. But I also don't get why everyone's so gaga about it? It has a pretty straight-forward, paint-by-numbers plot for both the rom-com and time-loop genres. I think everyone is just starved for something sweet, which is...fair.

The Claudia Kishi Club
This was an extremely sweet look at the impact varied representation has on kids. Claudia Kishi is 100% the coolest member of the Babysitter's Club – but more importantly, she was a cool Asian character that Asian kids got to see themselves in. Claudia is great at art! She makes bad grades! She has her own phone line! She resists the Model Minority myth in basically every way, and it's awesome that she exists.

24X36: A Movie About Movie Posters
This documentary isn't perfect – it divides its time in a questionable way and there are parts with no sound that could've used some background music. But it's cool! I don't think it had every fully occurred to me that the movie posters prior to the mid-'80s were hand-drawn, and it was interesting to learn about those artists. I also liked learning the history of the screenprint movement since I own several.

Session 9
This movie felt exactly the way RTD episodes of Doctor Who that had psychological thriller themes felt. That eerie but kind-of cheesy, low-budget vibe. If you know you know. Anyway, it wasn't great but it also wasn't terrible. I'd probably never watch it again but I don't regret watching it once.

Rewatch: Clueless. Watched for its 25th anniversary. A classic, but it wore a little thin on me this time.

Urzila Carlson: Overqualified Loser
Decently entertaining! Not laugh-out-loud funny but full of solid jokes. I've thought about the bit with the chips several times.

The Old Guard
I went into this movie not being sure I'd like it at all, much less really like it – but I did! In addition to the fact that I will watch any movie where Charlize Theron beats people up (preferably showing off her biceps), it also has a cool story and I felt very invested in all of the characters. I would happily watch at least one more.

Rewatch: An American Werewolf in London. This is still excellent and rewatching it, I'm more convinced than every that it's Fright Night's spiritual predecessor.

The Host
This didn't wow me in the way Parasite did (obviously), or even in the way Snowpiercer did, but it had some good things going on. It's too long, but it does some unexpected things and, let's face it: it's pretty hard to pull off a real-deal monster movie in general. It gets the job done.

Last Christmas
Listen. I know it's July, and I am staunchly a Christmas-movies-are-for-December person. I also know that this movie's trailer basically completely gave away its twist. But I liked it! It was cute! It was funny! Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding are both beautiful! It will almost give you a toothache, but sometimes that's what you need.

The Dead Zone
I haven't read the book but as far as Stephen King adaptations go, this is better quality than usual. I was really interested in the first half, but didn't love the abrupt direction it took in the second. However, it was fun to watch Christopher Walken when he wasn't quite so ~Christopher Walken~.

Ghost Stories
Here's the thing about this movie: It's very good until it isn't. I was super into the story, trying to figure out the clues, very impressed by the horror elements. And then it decided to be something else – and the second it did that, I hated it. I'm admittedly not much of a fan of absurdism, nor the particular plot device this film eventually employs, but it was super annoying to watch this good movie turn bad.

This month in attempts: Winchester (I made it 30 minutes and even that was excruciating), Voyeur (I was bored and also weirded out, less by the concept and more by the almost impressed tone).

That thing I said about being starved for something sweet (or soft or comforting or just not freaking depressing)? It's spilled into my TV watching. I watched all of Netflix's Say I Do, which is Queer Eye but with weddings. I also watched all of Netflix's new Babysitter's Club series, which The Hollywood Reporter accurately described as a "sunny, synth-y pastel tween wonderland that makes you feel like you're stepping into a colored-pencil drawing." I'll take everything Claudia Kishi owns, thanks.

On the flip-side, I've also been watching HBO's I'll Be Gone in the Dark, which is about as opposite from BSC as you can get. But the tale of the Golden State Killer is fascinating, as is Michelle McNamara's unyielding pursuit of his identity. The series has also touched on larger issues of misogyny in ways that I find very interesting. 

Also been doing a casual, comforting rewatch of Buffy because sometimes what the heart needs is high school drama, quippy one-liners and vampires in leather jackets.

In books, it's been all mysteries. I finished The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, which I mostly enjoyed. Grady Hendrix has a way of writing truly gross things that is simultaneously off-putting and commendable. Then I speed-read two more Riley Sager books, The Last Time I Lied and Home Before Dark. No one is better than Sager (so far) at making me think I know things and then being like "lol, you thought." Now I'm reading The Hand on the Wall, the finale of Maureen Johnson's excellent Truly Devious trilogy.

Finally, here's how summer sounds so far – plus folklore, duh.

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