Miscellaneous Movie Moments XCVI (September & October 2023)

August is traditionally the "we don't know where else to open these movies" dumping ground of studios, and November is the "last chance to get in the big awards nomination window" timeslot, so September and October are generally pretty chill. (Except for horror movies, but I do not watch horror movies, so.) I found myself a good batch to watch, though!

Showing Up | Bottoms | The In-Laws | A Haunting in Venice | The Creator | Dumb Money | Killers of the Flower Moon

Miscellaneous Movie Moments XCV (August 2023)

That's right, it's BARBENHEIMER time. Here are my quick reactions to the…*counts*...twelve films I watched in August.

Haunted Mansion (2023) | Spy Kids | Oppenheimer | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem | How to Blow Up a Pipeline | Blue Beetle | The Last Voyage of the Demeter | Meg 2: The Trench | Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story | Golda

Miscellaneous Movie Moments XCIV (July 2023)

Once again, I am way behind on my movie updates! I'm trying to catch up before the end of the year, so I won't be writing a ton about any of these. Expect a lot of GIFs, though!

July was a pretty busy month for me, between a conference and a family wedding, so I didn't see a TON. But among them were some good 'uns!



Past Lives | Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken | Joy Ride (2023) | Mission: Impossible--Dead Reckoning, Part One | Kung Fu Panda 2 | Kung Fu Panda 3

Miscellaneous Movie Moments XCIII (May & June 2023)

I love summer movie season. I love living ten minutes away from a movie theatre. What a time to be alive!

The Hating Game | Big George Foreman | Love Again | The Green Knight | Five Easy Pieces | Fast X | Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse | You Hurt My Feelings | The Flash | Transformers: Rise of the Beasts | The Little Mermaid (2023) | Elemental | Asteroid City | No Hard Feelings | Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Movie Moments XCII: Guardians of the Galaxy Edition (April/May 2023)

It's been a while since I've done a themed movie post, but with the last Guardians movie rolling in--or, at least, the last one helmed by James Gunn--I figured this would be worth doing. Hilariously, I dug into my old posts and discovered the vast discrepancies between how I used to do movie reviews (literally one-sentence random thoughts) and how I do them now (hefty TL;DR meditations on narrative). I'm trying to split the difference with this post, because I'm really tired, y'all.

Guardians of the Galaxy | Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 | Avengers: Infinity War | Avengers: Endgame | Thor: Love and Thunder | The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special | Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Miscellaneous Movie Moments XC (March 2023, Part Two)

Now that Oscar season is over, I felt it was time to go on an action movie spree! Also, my Spring break started. We've got five delightful (to me) films that are nonstop violence, LET'S GO.

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves | Creed III | 65 | Shazam! Fury of the Gods | John Wick: Chapter 4

Miscellaneous Movie Moments LXXXVIII (January 2023)

The time has come, y'all! OSCAR WATCHING SEASON. I do like January as a movie-watching month--it's a good mix of genre stuff and awards bait stuff, and sometimes those two things even overlap.

Willow | Black Adam | Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery | Top Gun: Maverick | The Banshees of Inisherin | Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio | RRR | Elvis | Fire of Love | All Quiet on the Western Front | Shortcomings | Fancy Dance

Miscellaneous Movie Moments LXXXVII (November & December 2022)

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever | Rise of the Guardians | Slumberland | Avatar | Avatar: The Way of Water | Ratatouille | Christmas with a Prince

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, 11 November 2022, Century Olympia 

I went to a 9 AM showing of the film, forgetting it would inevitably start with a funeral. Guys, I wept watching the friggin' Marvel Studios logo.

Four specific things I really, really love about #WakandaForever:

Miscellaneous Movie Moments LXXXVI (July/August 2022)

While I didn't watch all that many movies these past couple of months, the ones I did watch were pretty excellent. Action galore! #RepresentationMatters!



Thor: Love and Thunder | Everything Everywhere All at Once | Space Sweepers | Vengeance | Easter Sunday | Prey

Miscellaneous Movie Moments LXXX (December 2021)

Marie Antoinette, 05 December 2021, DVD via university library
When, close the beginning of the movie, the titular protagonist crosses over from her native Austria and into her new home, France, then hugs the mistress of her household, bids goodbye to all her friends, is stripped of her clothing, and is robbed of her Austrian puppy (You can have as many FRENCH dogs as you want, they tell her), you sort of see how everything is already going to go wrong for her.

Movie Moments LXXVI: Guillermo Del Toro Edition

Happy Christmas, Kassy! I figured I'd do the Del Toro, in honor of our visit to At Home with Monsters. Spooky and lovely--just like you, in fact.

Previously, from the Oeuvre
Seen:
Hellboy, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Pacific Rim, The Shape of Water

Not Seen:
Cronos, Mimic, The Devil's Backbone, Blade II, Pan's Labyrinth, Crimson Peak

Movie Moments LXXV: ST Kelvin Edition

Happy Christmas, Deborah! I didn't have enough time to do a season of Voyager, but I swear it's coming.

What's the Deal?
As I mentioned back in my TNG Season 1 write-up, it's only recently that I've started seriously delving into Trek. I think as the Kelvin movies were released, I knew almost nothing about the original Trek. I knew nothing about what was supposed to be a change or not. Technically, I still don't! (Still haven't watched the original series.) That I adore, or at least immensely respect, every single actor they hired certainly helped with my enthusiasm, though.



If you're as out in the dark (it's a pun, heh) as I was, Space.com shared a handy breakdown of why the Kelvin timeline is different.

Movie Moments LXXIV: Nolan Edition

Happy Christmas, Ellery! Not that time has any meaning anymore, so SamtsirhC YppaH or whatever. I've picked a trio of Nolan films to investigate and am looking forward to living 2022 like a matryoshka doll. Also, this is the possibly the closest my scholarly and fannish writing have ever been.



Previously, from the Oeuvre
Seen:
Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Interstellar, Dunkirk, Tenet
Not Seen:
Following, Memento, Insomnia

What's the Deal
Whenever I think of Nolan, I hear, like, a basso profundo gong strike and a rattling perception of time. The Batman movies, of course, aren't as fluid as the others--comic books do time travel, but their modules are linear. Nolan's work isn't cheery--does anybody smile, ever--but it's not exactly morose, either. It's...ontological? Ontology leaves no room for merriment.

Miscellaneous Movie Moments LXXIII (November 2021)

Free Guy, 02 November 2021, Blu-ray via Redbox
I wonder what it would have been like to watch this movie without knowing its central conceit: That is, Ryan Reynolds plays an NPC in an FPS named Free City and, one day, he becomes aware.

Movie Moments LXIX: Yo Joe Edition (August 2021)

I have retained two things from my childhood of watching GI Joe: First, a deep affection for Lady Jaye/Flint and second, an absolute and automatic need to say, "And knowing is half the battle" whenever I hear someone pronounce, "Now you know."

Movie Moments LXVIII : Harley Quinn Edition (August 2021)

There's a new DCEU movie, so it seems like an homage to Harley is in order. (I originally reviewed the first Suicide Squad and Birds of Prey in my DCEU marathon.) But I have loved Harley ever since she emerged in Batman: The Animated Series. How much? I legit used "Harlequinade" for analysis in my classes a few years later.

Miscellaneous Movie Moments LXVII (May/June/July 2021)

I didn't watch a ton of movies in the past few months (aside from my Superman, Little Women, Fast/Furious, and Beauty and the Beast clusters, I mean).

Movie Moments LXV: The Fast and the Furious (June 2021)

Down the street from my old house, across a field from my first alma mater, there's a quarter-mile stretch of road. How many flipped cars have I seen by that road, right after there's a slight curve? Let's just say more than one.

The Fast and the Furious came out in 2001. This series is twenty years old. Twenty glorious years.

Fandoms I Have Loved, Part 7: Supernatural

This one’s an extremely long one, friends. Supernatural (SPN) went for fifteen glorious seasons! There is SO MUCH. 

Logliney Stuff:
Two brothers. Saving people. Hunting things. They start out with monsters and end up fighting, well, God. It’s a thing.

Movie Moments LVIII: Bourne Edition (March 2021)

Y’all, I know I’ve watched a couple of these movies, but I legit remember nothing about them except that Julia Stiles is involved somehow? I’m not sure what it says about the movies themselves, but HERE WE GO.