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Watched on Thursday May 22, 2025.

Logging this so I could show it to anytime someone says I don't have patience.

Watched on Wednesday May 21, 2025.

Yeah, well, no room for any future disappointment because we already knew the franchise peaked with Fallout. They ended up delivering on not just the best version of an M:I film, but also in of any action film in general in of the sheer craft and kinetics of each stunt and action setpiece. Magnificent even upon an eighth rewatch.

Watched on Sunday May 18, 2025.

Watched on Thursday May 15, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday May 14, 2025.

Watched on Saturday May 3, 2025.

Watched on Saturday May 3, 2025.

Watched on Friday April 25, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday April 23, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday April 22, 2025.

Watched on Friday April 18, 2025.

Watched on Sunday April 13, 2025.

Watched on Sunday April 13, 2025.

Watched on Sunday April 13, 2025.

Watched on Thursday April 3, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday April 2, 2025.

Watched at Alamo Drafthouse Lower Manhattan on April Fools. Fun.

Watched on Friday March 28, 2025.

Watched on Friday March 28, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday March 26, 2025.

Watched on Friday March 21, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday March 19, 2025.

Watched on Monday March 17, 2025.

Watched on Saturday March 15, 2025.

Watched on Thursday March 13, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday March 12, 2025.

Well, watching this on 35mm definitely unlocked an essential film viewing experience. Incredible how it instantly slips you into this world where hell literally breaks lose on ground.

Back when I watched it 8 years back, my main takeway - apart from the masterclass filmmaking - was its take on religion. Upon a subsequent rewatch, it unfolded like the best version of an anti-hero story about the fragility and inherently corrosive nature of the American dream.

This time, however, noticing all the way in which PTA subjectively deflects and reasserts power dynamics throughout the film, it's very much ultimately about what the male ego can subsume. That's what allows the seemless interwining of capitalism and religion as a way function in how one can parasitically feed onto the other. That's what, quite honestly and deservingly so, makes it one of the best and most timeless films of 21st century. I cannot fucking wait for his next film later this year!

Watched on Saturday March 8, 2025.

Watched on Saturday March 8, 2025.

When it comes to the most influential contemporary filmmakers, few stand out quite like Bong Joon Ho. His signature style is so distinct that it resists the usual constraints of big studio executives. While his sharp critiques of capitalism might seem too pointed for mainstream audiences, it’s his ability to blend tonal whiplash with intricately crafted societies that truly defines his work. In his naturalistic and humanist pursuit of crafting intimate stories, he is concurrently able to reveal the dehumanizing horrors of the system that creates these societal divides.

It’s no surprise, then, that his latest venture, “Mickey 17” produced by Warner Bros., explores the existential nightmare of a man reduced to a cosmic joke by interstellar technology—one that grants him a form of immortality while making him endlessly disposable. After a failed business venture on Earth, Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) embarks on a space colonization mission under the leadership of ex-Congressman Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo), a messianic figure eager to rebuild his political clout. Marshall, a failed politician exploiting legal loopholes, is determined to establish a colony on the ice planet Niflheim, aided by his eccentric mistress (Toni Collette).

To achieve this, he relies on a controversial technology known as human printing—a term that, by its very nature, feels deeply unsettling. This process allows for the replication of humans upon death, restoring their bodies and memories intact. While too ethically fraught to be permitted on Earth, it serves as a convenient experiment for colonization efforts on an alien world. As Mickey navigates his unconventional role—one he barely skimmed the manual for—he forms bonds with security officer Nasha (Naomi Ackie), his devoted girlfriend, and Timo (Steven Yeun), his slippery yet well-meaning best friend.

Mickey’s existence becomes a cycle of death and resurrection, with each iteration contributing to humanity’s exploration. But, at what cost? While other colonists view him with a mix of twisted iration and condescension—treating him as their expendable village idiot—they can’t resist asking what dying actually feels like. However, the status quo is upended when an unexpected event leads the team to mistakenly presume Mickey dead, paving the way for his successor: Mickey 18. This confrontation with his own duplicate awakens a long-dormant survival instinct, forcing him to grapple with a profound question—what is his life truly worth?

It’s only a matter of time before they realize that if neither Mickey sacrifices himself for the so-called greater good, both will be permanently eliminated. After all, loopholes only apply to those who fight long enough to carve out a semblance of purpose and power, right?

Bong Joon Ho’s chosen instrument for dissecting this moral quandary is Pattinson’s nuanced performance. He masterfully embodies two distinct personas of the same soul, bringing out the existential weight of their predicament. His portrayal also grants the film its quieter moments of introspection, reinforcing how Bong excels at finding intimacy within the sweeping scale of his sci-fi worlds.

While Bong’s writing has never romanticized the quiet suffering of his protagonists, framing Mickey’s inescapable misery through the lens of his absent self-worth is what ultimately propels the story forward. It’s no coincidence that countless people in our own world mirror Mickey 17’s existential dilemma. His plight isn’t an anomaly or a disease—it’s a symptom of a system designed by crony capitalists who see human lives as expendable, reducing their struggles to mere probabilities in a grand economic equation.

This very concept fuels the film’s heightened tone, functioning as an almost absurdist satire. Just wait until you see how casually the base crew disregards Mickey 17’s missing body, opting instead to print out a replacement without a second thought. In this regard, the film unfolds as a stark litmus test for civilization itself—where even something as mundane as sauces is treated as a commodity, with recurring imagery reinforcing its oil-like value. The film’s expository nature places viewers in an endless loop, much like Mickey’s own existence. This cyclical structure also amplifies the film’s reactionary politics, reflected in the nuanced interplay between the two leads. However, this thematic core arguably needed a more measured approach to fully explore its depth.

“I died and then was just born again,” Mickey 17 says at one point. It’s the first real moment of self-awareness in his journey, making his plight feel all the more human. This realization also highlights the fascinating dynamic between Mickeys 17 and 18, who serve as the emotional axis of the story. Yet, despite its compelling execution, their interactions never quite as the film’s thematic heart. It's what leads to the rather unevenly paced second act, which might have been attributed to the delays by the studio.

The true reckoning, however, arrives in the film’s final, sweeping act, where the question of who is truly alien—and who isn’t—takes center stage. It's when the contrivances built on power turn into a conflict. One that has us confronting the ugly reality of how humanity would be continuing to make the same mistakes even when given all the potential avenues of exploration. The tragedy is that we'd only be learning from the most trivial of the mistakes, even with our collective fate staring right back at us. That's when you wonder how we don't even have to go into space to realize that the real villains are probably the humans who would accept the same messianic tyrant even down on earth.

Watched on Monday February 24, 2025.

Watched on Friday February 21, 2025.

Watched on Saturday February 22, 2025.

Watched on Saturday February 22, 2025.

Watched on Friday January 24, 2025.

The most anticlimactic bloat of a mess in the entire MCU canon, both thematically and narratively. Set aside all the sloppy reshoots and rewrites, if you can't make a coherent espionage thriller while restoring to the status quo in the facade of radical storytelling - then don't even try.

Watched on Monday February 17, 2025.

Watched on Saturday February 15, 2025.

Watched on Friday February 14, 2025.

Watched on Friday February 14, 2025.

Watched on Thursday February 13, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday February 12, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday February 11, 2025.

Watched on Thursday February 6, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday February 4, 2025.

Rewatched at AMC Empire 25 on IMAX. I truly believe Parasite is the last great new film we got. And for God's sake, it's already been 5 damn years?

Watched on Friday January 31, 2025.

Watched on Friday January 31, 2025.