Catching Up

It’s been a long time since I’ve written a review. I’ve watched plenty of great movies recently (including one that will certainly be on my best of the decade list), but as I sit to write my thoughts I can only get a paragraph down. I think there are a lot of reasons for this that are painfully boring and shading towards over-sharing. Like working out, I've decided to start back up slowly and just write a few blurbs about the stuff I’ve seen and read recently that I’ve really enjoyed.




LONGLEGS: Predestined to like this one I’ll be honest. I’m lukewarm on Perkins’ other two films, but this one really had me almost immediately. The thing that struck me most about Longlegs is the way geometry of spaces are shown. The first act in particular makes each space look like they’re palaces to the loneliness the rest of the world feels. The office that Maika Monroe works in is this ocean of red shag carpet that’s being slowly covered by images of grizzly murders. The third act takes some huge swings that I appreciate more than I enjoy, but ultimately I do like where it ends a lot. Already due for a rewatch.


I SAW THE TV GLOW: Easily my favorite movie of the year with writing that is so truly devastating I have not stopped thinking about it since I’ve seen it. I Saw the TV Glow is chiefly about gender dysphoria, a struggle that I am ignorant of. I implore anyone reading this to find something written about this film from one of the many very talented trans film critics that are out there writing. Above all I Saw The TV Glow reminds me of my favorite excerpt from literature by William Faulkner which I will leave you all with.

“...I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire...I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all of your breath trying to conquer it.” 

CHALLENGERS: More than most sports, Tennis has a sort of Tabula Rasa effect after each point scored. A perfect cycle of death and rebirth every fourth hit of a tennis racket. The film takes most of its thematic points following this cycle as well. Zendaya is an absolute showstopper giving us a performance that is already one of my favorites of hers. Reznor and Ross craft their best score since their previous work in The Social Network, and it pairs greatly with Luca G​​uadagnino’s visual and frenetic style. Great work with one of my favorite endings in recent memory.



CIVIL WAR: In the past year or so I’ve really gotten back into photography. Some of it is a professional need to do so, but mostly it feels nice to be behind the lensfinder again. Photography and writing are similar in a lot of ways, my favorite one being the solitude of it. The camera acts as a sort of wall, stopping you from truly interacting with the moment at hand, but allowing others to live this moment again and again. This has little to do with Civil War, which is mostly about the efforts we as humans take to capture truth in a world where truth might not be able to survive. I do find the discourse around this film to be interesting, the most common complaint being the film doesn’t stand for much. Not to be rude, but simply I think I saw a different film than these people.





THE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVES: If you’ve had the great misfortune of speaking to me in the past year or so then I’ve probably brought up this series written by Brandon Sanderson. It’s some of the best fantasy genre fiction I’ve ever read. Not much to say about this one but Sanderson uses the extreme length of these books to interrogate just about every facet of the genre.




GIOVANNI’S ROOM: This is, very foolishly, my first James Baldwin. I’m far too dumb to explain how great of a writer James Baldwin is. Somehow in under 200 pages he crafts one of the most heartbreaking pieces I’ve ever read.

“I scarcely know how to describe that room. It became, in a way, every room I had ever been in and every room I find myself in hereafter will remind me of Giovanni’s room.”

TOM LAKE: A very fun and light read all the way until the last fifty pages which made me weep. I’m going to get into spoilers here, so if you have a free weekend and are looking for something that moves quickly with some great prose please read it. Spoiler time: near the end, we find out that Duke has passed away and our narrator laments the loss for the first time. I’m paraphrasing here, but she says something like, “I had room for everyone in my life. I just didn’t know it until now.” Even writing that now puts tears in my eyes. Sorry for the overshare, but that’s just really affecting.





If you’ve read or watched anything on the list and liked it let me know. It’s fun to talk about stuff we like. Thanks for reading.