fast times at ridgemont high (1982)

Fun seeing all the young stars (especially my fav forest whitaker) and fun following along with their hijinks; early 80s representations of high schooler sex lives are fairly horrifying so be warned; overall was worth a revisit. 

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)

Considering how bad sequels usually are, I’m as surprised as everyone else to admit that this was a lot of fun - my one complaint is that a bunch of the dialogue from the first half was really obvious and throwaway, and more importantly my other complaint is that there are too many characters and they don’t get developed to any depth, so altho I do think that’s gonna be enough to keep this movie from achieving the cult status of its forebear, the practical effects and acting were really lovely. 

Over the Edge of the World by Laurence Bergreen

I really appreciated this lengthy history of Magellan for its no-nonsense attention to detail, its use of primary sources, and its great readability and the excitement of its story; I’m glad to have filled in my mental picture of the early 1500s and I enjoyed it the whole way. 

star trek beyond (2016)

Serviceable entertainment for non star trek fans, heavy on the VFX and crappy costumes, somehow pretty fun anyway. 

tinker tailor soldier spy (2011)

It’s probably just because I’m tired and faceblind, but this movie felt like a pastiche of barely-connected vignettes about spies, building up to a barely noticeable climax, which is funny because I loved the book and I think the movie faithfully captures le carré’s class and subtlety. 

Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold

Didn’t know much about this classic sci-fi series going into it, and at first I was asking myself if this book influenced star trek or vice versa, but about halfway thru it turns up the difficulty, intensity, and depth significantly and just never looks back, it honestly ends up being a very satisfying novel, transcends its genre with ease, really just an all-round winner. 

Jojo Rabbit (2019)

Deeply conflicted about this film, it’s quite clever, the casting, acting, dialogue, music, cinematography all top notch, I just don’t think the setting ever really connects with any of the rest of it; rather than a beautiful dark comedy set in the end of ww2 in germany it ends up feeling like a movie about the end of ww2 in germany, and also whoops someone turned up the “dark comedy” and “sentimental” dial really high but we’re not sure why. 

Turn the ship around! by David Marquet

Like most leadership self help books, this one is repetitive and under-nuanced, but on the other hand it’s about a nuclear submarine which is cool, and the concept of leading by helping your organization lead themselves is fun. 

Gladiator (2000)

Decent action scenes, good casting, boring and obvious plot, real tear-jerker of an ending (I mean I didn’t actually cry but the vibe was there). 

the holdovers (2023)

This is a light + serious christmas movie that seems designed entirely to give paul giamatti room to have fun being mr super character actor, and while it wasn’t exactly interesting to me, i can’t fault the good folk music and chill vibes. 

Finish What We Started by Isaac Arnsdorf

This highly detailed, very contemporary account of the MAGA movement's takeover of the republican party will probably not retain its relevance as time passes, but at this moment it's super useful to see the machinations that lead to rising populism within a political party in piercing detail; I took away a few deep thoughts around people, intelligence, this country, its origins, but most entertaining from this read are descriptions of Georgia republicans fighting over how to vote in their own internal meetings so that they can elect new MAGA members so that they can fix voting at the national elections.

Dune: Part Two (2024)

Strong sci-fi feast for the eyes, better than part one, tons of action, but above all, fantastic art direction for the bad guys (the harkonnens), like if the italian futurists took over russia and then found merged with the evil empire from chronicles of riddick. 

Space Cowboys (2000)

I love a good space adventure but this one spends far too long on intros and character development and then runs out of time and budget for the exciting adventure bits. 

Night Moves (1975)

Beautifully and cleverly shot, full of that mid 70s grit and verve that I love so much, but also deep, confusing, moving, with a couple very strong characters - this bizarro-detective film noir story should be famous! 

Mortal Engines (2018)

The missed potential here hurts so much because if this movie had had dialogue/plot as absurd and huge and overdone as the premise and vfx, it would have been unstoppably cool - but instead we got shmaltzy focus-grouped generic pablum, probably chosen by committee, in place of interesting plot and dialogue. 

1917 (2019)

Altho it’s sorta funny they didn’t manage to get this movie out on the centennial of its titular date, it is a pretty effective war story with a very technically interesting “one shot” technique that adds a bit of glamor to the whole situation.