'Pluck it out and throw it from you' | May in Review

Last month, I wrote that I felt I was at a crossroads for what I want this blog to be. That I might shake up the format and move away from the end-of-month recaps as I've been doing them for years.

I'm still figuring it out, but this month, I decided to focus on the films that had the biggest impact on me, for better or worse.

First up, I watched the entire John Wick trilogy this month. And it made me reconcile with a crucial element of my movie taste: I really like action movies.

But it's complicated. When I say "action movies," I largely (but not exclusively) don't mean movies about 1) the military, 2) superheroes or 3) big beefy guys blowing stuff up (see like, The Expendables). I mean action-adventures like The Mummy (1999). Blow-stuff-up movies that are also funny like the original Die Hard. And movies like the John Wick trilogy, which have so much lore I want to know more about but that do not tell me any of it because they are about gun ballet and nothing else. 

My only critique of the John Wick movies is that each is slightly less tight than the last. But even though Parabellum is the weakest, there's still a scene with a library book you should look up even if you don't want to watch the movie. 

The next May movie experience that is sticking with me is Men, a true for better, for worse situation. Because here's the thing: A good portion of this movie is effectively menacing. It does suffer from "I saw this in the trailer" Syndrome, but I still thought it was good. In fact, one section was genuinely terrifying.

But...then. 

I won't spoil what happens in the final act of Men. I will just say that I hated it, and I hate that I hated it because, though it's a little unfair to compare a director's works, Ex Machina and Annihilation are both so much better.

Men made me feel sick to my stomach more than once, for different reasons and with a different...takeaway? Some of the time, I felt like "wow, this is good filmmaking that I'm having such a visceral reaction to this" and some of the time, it was more like "wow, this is terrible filmmaking because I don't even want to look at this." Watching it is definitely A Time. 

Another major May movie moment was rewatching Hereditary, which I did as soon as I got home from seeing Men. 

The first time I watched this film, in 2019, I gave it one and a half stars on Letterboxd. I felt like it was a movie that prioritized disturbing images over good writing and, though I recognized the performances were good, I just didn't like it.

After I watched it this month, I gave it four and a half stars. It's hard to pinpoint exactly where this shift occurred, but I think it had a lot to do with already knowing what I was getting into. Nothing took me by surprise, so I was able to focus on the films strengths: the way it actually looks and, again, the performances. There's a great thing going on with the miniatures Annie makes versus the way "real life" looks and Toni Collette is, as always, incredible. The fact that she wasn't even nominated for an Academy Award for this role remains a travesty and a great example of Academy failure. 

Finally, The Bob's Burgers Movie was not The purest movie experience I've had so far this year – that was Everything Everywhere All At Once – but it was a damn delight and a source of joy I deeply needed after a relentlessly horrible week.

In other news, I also watched these films for the first time: The Wicker Man (2006), Vampire's Kiss (I hated this), The Fifth Element, Old (also hated this, but for different reasons), The Rental and Dune (2021 -- liked this a lot more than I thought I would). And I rewatched these: Star Trek (2009), Star Trek Into Darkness, Star Trek Beyond, all bangers to this day.

The best non-movie media I consumed in May was Harry's House (duh) and I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston (also duh). Every book Casey has written so far has made me laugh out loud one minute and cry the next. This one, their first YA, about what it's like to grow up queer in a community that doesn't want you to fully exist, definitely had me copying whole passages down to process them. It's also just so much fun. 

And "Music for a Sushi Restaurant" is obviously the best Harry's House track.

April in Review

I'm not quite sure what to do with this blog anymore.

I created Within This Hive when I was in high school, though whatever I wrote on here then has since been purged and the oldest entry is now from Summer 2011, right after I graduated. Since then, it's sometimes been used as a place to write about my life, from recaps of trips to Austin when I didn't live here to bulleted lists of whatever I was loving at the time. It's also occasionally served as a place for weird little pop culture essays and longer-form reviews (I even graded some movies once, way back in 2013??) 

Since January 2018, I've used Within This Hive as a place to write little mini-reviews of all the films I see for the first time in a month – something I've kept track of since at least 2013. In 2019, I started tweeting even mini-er reviews as I watched films, then writing more about those films later, at the end of each month.

Now, I don't know. I still plan to keep track of the movies I watch and I think the Twitter thread works for that purpose and is also something other people enjoy. And I also still like writing about movies, even though I'm watching far fewer of them these days. But these end-of-month recaps aren't doing much for me anymore, so I think they need to change.

Maybe that means writing about only the best film or thing I experienced in a month. Maybe it means only writing about things when I feel truly affected by them, whether because they were great or because they were terrible or both. I'm not sure what the future will look like (#deep), but I think it's going to be different.

But before that:

Stay Alive

If you've followed my movie-watching journey long enough, you know that sometimes I like to intentionally watch movies – specifically horror – that I already know are going to be bad. Sometimes, bad movies are fun to watch. IYKYK. The downside is that sometimes, you end up watching a bad movie that's just bad and not fun-bad. Like this one.

Fractured

Another way to end up watching a bad movie is when you watch a trailer that looks pretty bad, but you trick yourself into thinking that maybe, somehow, sneakily, it's actually good. That's how I watched Fractured, a movie that is not remotely sneaky or good.

Rewatch: John Mulaney: New in Town, John Mulaney: The Comeback Kid. Despite being a millennial, Tim had never seen a Mulaney special, so we had to fix that.

Hannibal Buress: Animal Furnace

In response to Tim watching some Mulaney specials, we watched a Hannibal special at his recommendation. I had only ever seen Hannibal in things (mostly Broad City) and had never seen any of his specials. This one wasn't out-of-the-park funny, but it wasn't bad.

Everything Everywhere All at Once

This movie is unlike anything I've ever seen and probably ever will. I cried multiple times despite the fact that I repeatedly thought, "This is one of the weirdest things I've ever seen" At least once, I thought this while crying. It's incredible. See it as soon as you can, preferably in a theater.

Rewatch: Drop Dead Gorgeous. Saturday was Kirsten Dunst's birthday and Tim had never seen Drop Dead Gorgeous, an ailment that afflicts many but which must be cured as soon as it is detected.

This month, I also read Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi for ICYMI Book Club (sometimes funny but mostly just a perfectly ok YA book) and finished 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King (pretty good but not great like some of the other Kings I've read).

Looking forward to: seeing Haim and attending a Casey McQuiston book event within 48 hours.

March in Review

Spring has sprung and I'm feeling it. The green leaves and blossoming flowers, paired with an increasingly full calendar, have me feeling a little more like myself than I have in a long time. 

A little of this might be that SXSW was back this month. I got to watch and review five movies for work, which is something I still can't believe I get paid to do. It was also Tim's first time doing SXSW in any capacity, and it was really fun to show him the ropes. 

There's a lot going on in the next few months, both personally and professionally. But no matter how busy life outside my living room gets, I'll always be watching things. Here's March.

I Want You Back

I thought this was cute! Not perfect, but perfectly acceptable and I loved seeing Jenny Slate and Charlie Day in a rom-com. I also love when I can tell that the people behind a movie love When Harry Met Sally as much as I do.

The Power of the Dog

When I finished this film, I didn't really have any critiques but I felt really meh about it. Now I can only remember how long it was.

The Batman*

I saw someone say this was like if SE7EN was a Batman movie and I have nothing else to add except that I love to be catered to. Like all superhero movies, it's a little bit too long, but otherwise, it was everything I wanted it to be and maybe even a little more.

The Lost City

The first of my SXSW watches! This was extremely fun and I really hope its current box office success convinces Hollywood to make more adventure movies that are genuinely enjoyable. Joyous escapism! What a concept! Anyway, here's my full review. (SXSW bonus: Both Sandra Bullock and Daniel Radcliffe were at the premiere and, obviously, they are both delightful, but I'm still reeling from how funny Sandra is IRL.)

Slash/Back

One of the perks of SXSW is getting to see movies you might not ordinarily see. Slash/Back is extremely an indie, in the traditional sense, meaning lower budget and smaller cast. If you like Attack the Block and/or tough teen girls, you'll like this one.

Apollo 10 1/2

It is well-documented that I love Richard Linklater movies. And I wish I loved this one. Unfortunately, it feels like two halves of two different films. They're good halves, but trying to do both things harms the overall product. I also definitely liked one half (the more traditional Linklater part, just about growing up in a different time) much better than the other (the, uh, actual plot of the movie).

Mama Bears

I definitely did tear up more than once watching this film about formerly conservative moms who know fight tooth-and-nail for their LGBTQ children. 

Bodies Bodies Bodies

My final SXSW watch of the year was a wild ride. It's nearly impossible to talk about it without giving anything away – which made for an interesting review challenge – but I will say the ending is incredible.

Windfall

I really liked this one. Jesse Plemons is fantastic as always and I've missed seeing Jason Segel in things. Felt very Hitchcock-inspired.

Turning Red

Unlike most, I didn't absolutely love this. But it was pretty fun and unexpected and I'm glad it exists. We need more content that just lets girls be young and weird.

Tick, Tick...Boom!

I put off watching this because I was sure it would devastate me and it did, in fact, break my heart. It's a film that was made by and for people who know what the world lost when it lost Jonathan Larson. Andrew Garfield is good as always.

They Live

I'm glad I finally watched this. I don't know that it's "good," necessarily, but it is enjoyable and unique. I also had no idea it's where “I came here to chew bubblegum...” came from.

X*

I really loved the other two Ti West films I've seen (The Innkeepers and The House of the Devil) so I was stoked to learn he was making a slasher and that A24 was involved and so it would get a larger audience. It lived up to my hype. I loved everything about it, including but not limited to the involvement of teen queen Brittany Snow.

Level 16

I had moderate expectations, but I thought this was really good! Twisty in a way that was just enough and not too much. Even when I got close to guessing what was going on, the reveals still felt satisfying.

In TV land, Tim and I have been finishing series and starting their sequels. We finished Avatar and started The Legend of Korra, and we also finished Breaking Bad and started Better Call Saul. We also enjoyed Netflix's Noir and I watched all three episodes of The Principles of Pleasure. Simultaneously, we're watching Orphan Black, one of my all-time favorite shows and one Tim has never seen.

I've been reading 'Salem's Lot, my sixth Stephen King, and I'm also reading Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi for #ICYMI Book Club.

I've got some exciting stuff coming up in April and May, including friends' birthdays, a book event and two concerts. Spring is treating me pretty well and I'm going to soak up the good while I can.

February in Review

I personally am not sad to see February go and, despite the fact that March is always a mess, I welcome it with open arms. It's officially time to start pretending it's spring. 

One good thing about February is that I actually saw quite a few good movies! I also saw Death on the Nile.

The Eyes of Tammy Faye 

First, Jim Bakker is a demon. Second, I've always been fascinated by Tammy Faye Bakker and had wanted to see this film since it was first announced. It does a pretty good job of telling the tale of Tammy's life while still letting the audience make its own final judgement about her. Chastain never misses and she'd be my #1 Oscars pick if I wasn't pulling for Kristen.

Rewatch: Annihilation and Ex Machina. Still both absolute bangers. I'm peak Film Bro™ when I'm watching Alex Garland.

Rewatch: 10 Things I Hate About You. For Valentine’s Day, obviously. I’ve already made Tim watch a lot of my favorite rom-coms, but he was overdue to see this classic.

Rewatch: All eight Harry Potter movies. Tim had also, incredibly, only seen four of the HP movies and it had been ages. Now he's seen the extended versions with bonus constant commentary.

Antlers

I really, really liked this one. It's unique, brutal and genuinely terrifying in more ways than one.

Death on the Nile*

Obviously, this movie is awful. When Tim and I watched Kenneth Branagh's abysmal adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express, we knew we would watch every other one he makes "based" on Agatha Christie books we've read because it's important to sometimes watch bad movies. We saw it in theaters exclusively so that we wouldn't have to cook dinner.

Rewatch: Fargo. Still one of the best Coens Brothers movies, but not the best Coen Brothers movie (that's O Brother, Where Art Thou?).

Frank

Tim had been trying to get me to watch this one for a while and I kept resisting because it looked like something I was going to hate. But I thought it was very charming! Domhnall Gleeson is great and it has a very 2009-2014 twee feel. I can't explain this – if you know, you know.

Train to Busan

This was much sadder than I anticipated, but it was also very stressful and very good. Don Lee's character absolutely rules.

Tim and I continued watching all our shows (we're in the final seasons of Breaking Bad and Avatar, caught up on The Righteous Gemstones and nowhere near finished with The X Files). I've also been watching How I Met Your Father (it's cute!) and season two of Love Is Blind (amazing, obviously). We also finally bought into the hype and started Euphoria. I've been handling it better than I thought I would, but it’s still very stressful.

I finished up God Spare the Girls (meh), read The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun for ICYMI Book Club (cute!) and read Chasing the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar (excellent). I'm skipping book club this month because, as mentioned, March is a mess, so I'm not sure what's next on my to-read list.

January in Review

Hello and welcome to another year of me watching things and writing about them because I don't know who I'd be if I stopped!

This year is a little different because, while I've watched a lot of movies with Tim over the past two years, I've watched every movie so far this year with him because we now share a living room. Does this mean I'll watch more movies? Fewer? (Less??) Who knows. We watched nine in January.

Let's get to it.

The Matrix

I was absolutely certain I had seen this, but then almost nothing was familiar, so I guess I either hadn't or my memory is terrible (both possible). I thought it was very creative and pretty fun, and I was surprised how little had been spoiled even though it's one of the most famous movies of the past few decades. Also, a Rage Against the Machine song plays during the credits, which is just incredible.

Nightmare Alley*

First movie theater outing of 2022! I honestly still don't know exactly how I felt about this one, but I know I liked it and also thought it was too long. Guillermo makes pretty movies and Bradley Cooper is pretty reliable. Cate Blanchett is so glamorous that watching her sometimes feels like having a panic attack.

Scream (5)*

Here's the thing: Scream (1996) is one of my favorite movies of all time. And I'm usually very much of the belief that if something is great, you should leave it alone. But not with Scream. I will happily watch new Scream movies until I die. This movie isn't perfect, but it's better than Scream 3 and that's all I could ask for.

The Babadook

A solid example of a horror movie that's about more than just monsters. An alternate title could be “Birth Control.” Also arguably an example of the Academy consistently ignoring horror performances. 

His House

This movie was just ok, but the story was unique.

The Amityville Horror (2005)

This movie, on the other hand, was not unique (if you'll recall, I took a nap in the middle of the original Amityville) and was one of the worst movies I've ever seen. There wasn't a single good thing about it.

The Clovehitch Killer

Pivoting again, this movie was very good. It had tight writing with a quiet menace throughout and the best performance I've personally seen from Dylan McDermott. The ending made me say "wild" out loud. Definitely give it a chance if you've considered it.

Django Unchained

I did not enjoy watching this and I wouldn't say it's very good. What it is is an ok movie with good performances from Christoph Waltz, Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio and the same performance you always get from Samuel L. Jackson.

Rewatch: Tombstone. Tim and I did a double feature with Django and Tombstone because I had never seen the former and he had never seen the latter. Tombstone is one of my dad's favorite movies and therefore one that is endlessly quoted by my family. It's still good and Val Kilmer's Doc Holliday is still one of my all-time favorite performances.

Also in January, Tim and I watched a lot of TV. As mentioned before, we're watching Breaking Bad for Tim's first time and we're currently on season four. We've also continued to make our way through Avatar: The Last Airbender for my first time (we're almost finished) and I've got Tim watching The Righteous Gemstones with me. But our main obsession this month aside from Breaking Bad has been Netflix's Archive81. We frequently don't know what's going on, but in a good way.

Oh, and I watched all of the new season of Queer Eye (solo) in a few days, obviously.

This month in books, I successfully managed to read the ICYMI Book Club's first book of the year, Little by Edward Carey. I really enjoyed it and think it's just weird enough that anyone could like it. Now I'm reading God Spare the Girls by Kelsey McKinney.

December in Review

Honestly, I don't have much to say about 2021 because, in many ways, it feels like it didn't even happen. It was often objectively better than the year before, but frequently, it just felt like a reboot of 2020. I'm not sad to see it go and I don't think anyone else is either.

As I've mentioned a couple of times on here throughout the year, my overall sense of burnout spread to movie watching. In 2020, I watched 200 movies or short films for the first time, a truly insane feat that would not have been possible had I not been stuck inside my home for most of the year. 

In 2021, it often felt difficult to do anything, even watching movies, one of my favorite things to do. In 2021, I watched 81 films for the first time – the least amount since I started keeping track around eight years ago. 

Here are the two I watched in December:

Single All The Way

A delight! I laughed out loud many times and spent the whole movie with a goofy grin on my face. Pure Christmas cheer.

Love Hard

Meh, it's fine. It has a very rocky start – I almost shut it off about three times – but it does what it can to stick the landing. Harry Shum Jr. is very fun as the male lead's douchey brother. I love to see Glee kids thrive. Also, the title is horrible even though I get what they were trying to do.

I also rewatched Home Alone, Home Alone 2 and pieces of Die Hard, Christmas Vacation, The Year Without a Santa Claus, etc. because duh, Christmas.

The best TV I watched in December was The Sex Lives of College Girls. The TV show I watched most often was Selling Sunset.

Best of 2021

Of the 81 movies I watched for the first time this year, the best was Nomadland (sometimes the Academy gets it right). Nine other standouts were: Promising Young Woman, Private Benjamin, The Descent, The Sparks Brothers, The Mitchells vs. the Machines, Dog Day Afternoon, Inglorious Basterds, Bo Burnham: Inside and Malignant. Honorable mention: Another Round.

I did a terrible job of keeping track of the TV shows I watched this year, so I don't really have a good recap of what was best. But I can say, as always, that you should watch Sex Education.

I read 20 books for the first time this year. The one that had the biggest impact on me was How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell. Five other favorites were You Play The Girl: On Playboy Bunnies, Stepford Wives, Train Wrecks, & Other Mixed Messages by Carina Chocano, The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole, We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix and The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.