moonfall (2022)

if you need a really sloppy mass market sci-fi action thriller this one’s got it all - hilariously inconsistent science and worldbuilding, stilted dialog, obvious and boring plot, and a whole ton of flashy fun cgi. 

The Power Broker by Robert Caro

Caro’s masterpiece biography of infamous genius Robert Moses reaches such a level of depth, detail, coherence, profundity, precision and humor that it is easily one of the most important books I’ve ever read. 

high life (2018)

This edgy art piece is nominally sci-fi but mostly just an excuse to be disturbing, and disturbingly horny, with no real point. 

step brothers (2008)

absolutely could not get through it i don’t mind if it’s your kind of humor but this cringe is not my bag also i think this movie is pretty offensive and I’m not easily offended. 

convoy (1978)

Yeah it’s a bit silly, has a whole song written for it that plays throughout the movie, but this 70s cult classic ends up being kinda deep and kinda radical and also just looks great. 

knives out glass onion (2022)

This second installment of this very recent daniel craig detective franchise is less funny than the first, but still plenty entertaining, engaging, dramatic, silly (also have to mention janelle monae's acting, which absolutely bodies everyone else’s) - and fairly satisfying if a bit dumb throughout. 

indiana jones and the last crusade (1989)

This indy sequel is a fun cheesy kids romp but the lazy action sequences and clumsy plot make it hard to recommend for a rewatch unless you have the nostalgia factor working for you. 

the nice guys (2016)

70s stylings meet 10s comedy in this light, fairly funny and entertaining buddy crime flick that could have been great but for its final third, in which the writing, pacing, and dialogue all fall off a cliff. 

final destination (2000)

so bad, so good, it’s bad, it’s funbad, it’s good?

fog of war (2004)

This very errol morris documentary about robert mcnamara is sad, startling, haunting, a very revealing portrait of a man grappling with his culpability in mass murder. 

white lotus season 2

Season 2 of this acclaimed show had a few great characters and was entertaining in a much more over the top way, which I'm sure helped make it very popular but to me kind of ruined the lovely storytelling and subtlety of the original - the writing just took too many easy shortcuts.

white lotus season 1

I don’t usually watch contemporary tv unless it’s critically acclaimed all over the place, which this one was, and altho there are boring and or stupid bits, I gotta admit that for subtlety and imagination I’m quite impressed. 

fantastic planet (1973)

this beautifully, painstakingly animated french 70s indie art classic is light on plot but heavy on very well thought out trippy alien nature.

master and commander: the far side of the world (2003)

For some reason a lot of people I follow on twitter seem to think this movie is a masterpiece, but I just don’t get it - it’s a solid but tedious period drama with boring action scenes. 

The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot

This is a book from the early 90s about an alternative view of life, the universe, and everything, involving thousands of anecdotes about ESP and the like, and while the first section (historical coverage of the holographic theory) was thought-provoking, I couldn’t get through the rest. 

shorting the grid by meredith angwin

Even though the entire book could have been one sentence (“regulatory capture by natural gas is hurting grid reliability by reducing nuclear”), and even though a deeper dive into the social mechanisms of that regulatory capture maybe would have been more useful, this book does deftly prove its point and provide a fascinating look into the kafkaesque nightmare that is the american electrical grid.