ahh and here we can find the first example of a somewhat overt homoerotic subtext: the drag musical masterpiece, WHERE IS MY HAIRBRUSH? Why is Bob giving Larry a once-over when he’s supposedly “slightly embarrassed at the sight of Larry in a towel,” why is Larry queening out, and can we talk about the stage/kitchen sink being showered with roses and applause at the end thus implying a live performance a lá drag? Not only that, but the musical number itself climaxes in a resolution of two divas (cucumber and peach) ing each other. Beautiful, generational work. And, controversial opinion, but I Can Be Your Friend is just as good as the Hairbrush Song. Insane flex to drop two absolute bangers on the same VHS.

The two narrative pieces (Flibber-o-Loo and the USS Applepie) hold up well, don’t overstay their welcome, and have a more refined sense of humor. “didn’t you minor in aerospace technology at the happy tots preschool?” “why yes, yes i did!” “what’d you major in?” “Play-doh.”

lowkey mid. a lot of components that are more elegantly integrated in later work, but the execution and intent is sloppy and the humor doesn’t always land.

oh, and no silly song. automatic worst of the OG’s.

this one is gay as helllllll. what’da’ya mean Larry walks around in a red handkerchief and nothing else, and then gets TIED UP by two leeks in LEATHER??? and then he’s a buss boy at an ALL-MALE SALOON??? honey…

i do think this is the last truly great Veggietales episode. this was the last one scripted and directed before Big Idea was bought out post-Jonah bankruptcy, and their signature artistic flair, mature humor, and theological sincerity never congealed the same. feels fitting that their last episode is about navigating hardships. there’s also a playfulness in the veggie’s gender-ambiguity that ebbed out after this one. almost all the veggies are voiced/named as men, but they maintain a deftness in switching between different codas. Junior Asparagus totally grew up to be one of the dolls.

vital to our history as a moving art form: Big Idea was formed around the same time as Pixar, and when Pixar would get stumped on how to animate eyes they’d call the Veggietales guys for help.

This review may contain spoilers.

Flint Michigan water be like-

I think the best experience of everything the movies can be is to sit in a theater and get your shit absolutely rocked by John Williams’ opening orchestra and the beautiful yellow STAR WARS suddenly filling your entire vision. Like a nuclear blast of wonder and delight. Doesn’t hurt that this is my favorite Star Wars movie too.

Am I, too, frustrated that I hadn’t already seen this? Yes.
Am I so glad I waited until I could find a decent seat for the 70mm IMAX showing? Undoubtedly. Society would be better if we could get a minimum of 8 movies from Ryan Coogler every decade.

watched the leaked workprint at half speed with subtitles from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.

Watched on Wednesday November 27, 2024.

The Substance x The Favourite x Grimm’s Fairytales

“psychology can destroy ion, but it can’t create it.”

Incredible movie to watch after starting prog. What a masterclass of adapting tone and the reader's experience of falling in love with the characters/world/prose of a story. Cutting details in service of the overall experience. Perfect casting across the board, and cinematography that still takes my breath away every time.

Watched on Friday April 18, 2025.

I knowwww Sorcerer is a direct remake, but even moreso than that I found myself reminded over and over again of Guadagino/Burrough’s QUEER. The roadhead on that trip must’ve been craaaazyyyy.

Watched on Friday April 18, 2025.

As disquieting, unnerving, and seductive as mourning (or the avoidance of it) has ever been. It feels wrong to grieve, like you’re missing the “wrong” parts of someone if you were to be totally honest. It’s not sanitary, it’s not polite, and in digital age it’s easier than ever to put a screen between yourself and their body. Was I frustrated that Karsh never examined his wife’s real body himself, to prove or disprove whatever conspiracy theories he believed in? Absolutely. To no end. Several beats could have been quickly answered by performing a special autopsy. But that’s not what grief wants. Grief doesn’t want an answer to its questions, a clean resolution that allows you to lay your love down to rest. Grief wants to look at them always, never out of sight and always ready for a fresh question. A new, sexy conspiracy that keeps their memory somewhat-alive just a little longer. There’s no end to grief, and there’s no end to the stories we invent to keep it alive a little longer.

“What do I do about the grief thing — dentally speaking?”

a friend asked me yesterday what i believed the purpose of suffering was. i wasn’t content with my answer yesterday, even less so today.

i wish i could hear god speak again. happy easter.

here’s a scene of Stan and his wife dancing against a window that will haunt me for the rest of my life as one of the most beautiful, heartwrenching images i’ve ever seen.

look i don’t know why but these have become my comfort movies since starting hrt. the camaraderie between everyone on-camera and off is so touching and is the safety every joke lands on. they’re the funniest guys in the world, and sometimes it’s just really neat to watch them get the shit beat out of each other or shove toy cars up their asses. theyre they’re the brothers i never got to have until i went to college. i love these boys.

EVEN WHEN NOBODY GOT ME, I KNOW Hi I’m Johnny Knoxville, welcome to Jackass GOT ME

Watched on Monday April 7, 2025.

Watched on Thursday March 27, 2025.

Watched on Thursday March 29, 2018.

I love this film. the ending works better each year that I’m older, the more I reflect on the identification we take from our parents and how that can so often shape parts of ourselves we may hate the most yet are so integral to our identities. to manage it, we all find our own solutions. that’s what growing up means.

hypnotically crafted, leaving its canvas barren  enough that anyone watching will impose their own stories into its structure. our moderated q&a with director Alex Burunova was attempting to coin a term for the new wave of films by women about their experiences and autonomy: my pitch is that we unite under the banner of the Feminist Empathetic Wave.

aside from everything Black Bag is about, I’m absolutely enthralled by the way Soderbergh directs, shoots, and edits this film into such a pristine thriller, sleek but still dabbling in the messes it makes. opening your film with a nightclub? dinner party drama, not once but twice over? and so many sublime cinematic flourishes throughout.

if you want to see Black Bag while it’s still in theaters, i’m happy to go again with you. and again. and again.

one of the most beautiful films i’ve ever seen — Scorsese, Deakins, and Schoonmaker imparting a sublime fluidity to the biopic that i’ve rarely experienced, and will yearn to see again for the rest of my life.

one of the strongest cases I’ve seen for the theatrical experience — maybe my 3rd time watching this, but really my 1st experiencing it. what a horrible, beautiful, tragic, romantic journey with one of my favorite performances by Cage.

though there’s not technically any sex, I would put Jackass in the running for some of the most intimate scenes ever captured in film.

Watched on Tuesday March 18, 2025.

Watched on Monday March 17, 2025.

back to my regularly scheduled programming, post-SXSW. this is my last of the theatrically released Jackass films, and they’re so much better than i could’ve imagined when their promo material first hypnotized me as an elementary-aged child. there are two paths of offspring from Buster Keaton: one is Johnny Knoxville, the other is Tom Cruise.

• Chicago
• Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé
• The Help
• Clueless
• Men in Black: International
• Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• Groundhog Day
• Ready Player One
• Enchanted

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

all these are really cool, all of them are ~30 minutes or less. I even worked on a few :)

• Blue
• The Backwater Gospel
• Play It Safe
• L'Opéra-Mouffe
• Coming Out
• You've Got Beautiful Stairs, You Know...
• The Alphabet
• Meshes of the Afternoon
• Darksome Desert
• The Red Balloon

...plus 75 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. I Saw the TV Glow
2. The Beast
3. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
4. La Chimera
5. Evil Does Not Exist
6. Better Man
7. Nickel Boys
8. Nosferatu
9. Challengers
10. All We Imagine as Light

...plus 23 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Now arranged by color!

last updated: February 7th, 2025

• To Joy
• School of Rock
• Declaration of War
• Lady Vengeance
• Bringing Up Baby
• The Wayward Cloud
• Opening Night
• The Red Shoes
• Bones and All
• High School Musical 3: Senior Year

...plus 165 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

tis the season for marathoning this year's releases - definitely not going to complete this list by then, but I fully intend to try! if there's a favorite film of yours that I've missed/haven't logged, i'd love to hear what it is and why you loved it :)

• Sing Sing
• My First Film
• Cloud
• Babygirl
• Rap World
• The Wild Robot
• Bird
• Kill
• Gladiator II
• The Apprentice

...plus 28 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. 12 Angry Men
2. Ikiru
3. PlayTime
4. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
5. City of God
6. Pather Panchali
7. Au Hasard Balthazar
8. A Woman Under the Influence
9. Certified Copy
10. Harakiri

...plus 536 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

sometimes the best way to meet a movie is halfway thru and in the middle of something else. i can’t wait to finish these.

• News from Home
• Mississippi Masala
• Yearning
• Dreadnaught

narrowing my expected watches so I don't get lost in decision paralysis. comment if there's something you think I'd like!

• A New Old Play
• Calvaire
• I, the Executioner
• The Wild Boys
• A Gun for Jennifer
• Sundown
• Out of the Past
• The Swimmer
• The Servant
• All Jacked Up and Full of Worms

...plus 15 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

now in order of purchase, last updated 7/21/2023

1. Beauty and the Beast
2. La La Land
3. Inception
4. Singin' in the Rain
5. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
6. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
7. The Prince of Egypt
8. Batman
9. School of Rock
10. Alien

...plus 758 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

All films written about in Joe Vallese’s queer essay collection

• The Exorcist
• Jennifer's Body
• Hereditary
• The Ring
• Pet Sematary
• Grace
• The Blob
• Society
• Godzilla
• Good Manners

...plus 17 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Poor Things
2. The Iron Claw
3. The Zone of Interest
4. Theater Camp
5. The Killer
6. May December
7. Leave the World Behind
8. The Boy and the Heron
9. John Wick: Chapter 4
10. All of Us Strangers

...plus 16 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

growing up as a star wars kid, I had a lot of books about the movies. this one, a timeline of influences on the films through their history until 2011. as a sheltered, wanna-be cinephile, this book sparked interest in so many movies I have yet to see. here's a log of as many of them as possible.

• The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
• Darby O'Gill and the Little People
• Shane
• Yojimbo
• Lawrence of Arabia
• Dementia 13
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• Planet of the Apes
• The Comedians
• Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB

...plus 45 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The ion of Joan of Arc
• Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc
• Joan of Arc
• Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
• The Execution of Joan of Arc
• Joan the Woman
• Saint Joan the Maid
• Joan of Arc
• Joan of Arc
• Joan of Arc at the Stake

...plus 25 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Happy new year — here's 20 of my favorite releases from this year.

1. Bones and All
2. Three Thousand Years of Longing
3. Memoria
4. Starfuckers
5. The Fabelmans
6. Dear Lauren,
7. You Won't Be Alone
8. RRR
9. Ever-Flowing
10. Babylon

...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Chronological order, pulling from my personal watchlist, TSPDT, Harvard's Film PhD lists, Letterboxd Top 250, Scorsese's Film School, and Spike Lee's Essential Films.

• Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory
• The Sprinkler Sprinkled
• Baby's Meal
• Annabelle Serpentine Dance
• The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat
• The Vanishing Lady
• The Kiss
• The Cabbage-Patch Fairy
• Mr. Edison at Work in His Chemical Laboratory
• Terrible Teddy, the Grizzly King

...plus 1829 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The top spot is a three-way tie between Titane, The Worst Person in the World, and West Side Story. Which do I value more, my gender identity, my emotionally turbulent nature, or being a theatre kid? I cannot say.

1. Titane
2. The Worst Person in the World
3. West Side Story
4. The Power of the Dog
5. Licorice Pizza
6. The Matrix Resurrections
7. Vortex
8. Nightmare Alley
9. Midnight Mass
10. The French Dispatch

...plus 20 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

shoutout to Mubi for introducing me to most of these titles, literally the best streaming service ever.

• All Is Lost
• Aloys
• American Animals
• Among Wolves
• Apocalypse After
• Apostle
• The Backwater Gospel
• Bathwater
• Blue Ruin
• Coming Out

...plus 30 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Movies that have been banned from screening at the Haven Haus

• Paul Blart: Mall Cop
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable – Chapter 1
• Zack Snyder's Justice League
• Repo Man
• Cars 3
• The Last Airbender
• Kung Fu Panda 3
• Planes
• A Quiet Place
• Martyrs

...plus 4 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Soul
2. Wolfwalkers
3. Euphoria: Trouble Don't Last Always
4. Another Round
5. Promising Young Woman
6. I'm Thinking of Ending Things
7. Bad Education
8. First Cow
9. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
10. OPAL

...plus 21 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Not by quality, but personal taste

1. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
2. Watchmen
3. Parasite
4. Little Women
5. Uncut Gems
6. Pain and Glory
7. The Farewell
8. El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
9. Midsommar
10. Anima

...plus 43 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Pretty self-explanatory

1. Sharp Objects
2. First Reformed
3. BlacKkKlansman
4. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
5. You Were Never Really Here
6. Blindspotting
7. Roma
8. A Star Is Born
9. The Favourite
10. Annihilation

...plus 62 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.