This latest two months were crazy. Never had so much work done, wrapped up the basic decorations in the apartment, and rewatched a bunch of stuff. For starters, I did finish my long-lasting “Simpsons” marathon, and am now watching in real time the new season. I also watched seasons 7 to 9 of “Seinfeld” again, just because, and finished “Atlanta”. And now I am watching simultaneously “Silicon Valley” and “Looking” on HBO Max. But let’s go back in time a little bit.
September was a very lazy month for movies, and even in theaters I did not see anything particularly interesting. So, I ended up watching less movies in a month than any other this year, spending a lot of my free time reading or playing games like the RPG Disco Elysium or The Sims 4.
In the rare occasions I watched a movie, I’ve seen some pretty good, in times forgettable ones. I started out with Eric Rohmer’s 1996 “A Summers Tale”, and kinda hoped to see more of his movies, which I didn’t. I’m still in love with Melvil Poupaud. I followed that one with Denis Villeneuve’s indie-era french-spoken “Maelstrom”, a movie that left an impression with its strange characters, weird coincidences and weird narration.
Then, I watched the 2021 “Candyman” and you can tell Jordan Peele had his hands on deck for this one. It was an interesting take to the story, really some cool representation, but ultimately, not much for a lasting impacting personally. I’ve also seen the new American version of “Good Night Mommy” and was surprised to find out Homelander’s son is a twin IRL. I never watched the original German film, but it was not difficult to figure out what was going on thirty minutes before the end. My mom still regrets watching this one with me.
Then I celebrated the end of my 33 seasons Simpsons marathon by rewatching “The Simpson Movie” for the second time this year. It still holds up as a good film, and you can really tell how 2007 Simpson style it actually is.
I went to a theater with my best friend and her son to watch “Mars One”, one of the best movies of the year and definitely one of my favorites Brazilian films of all time. It was shot in my hometown, and it takes advantage of it, plus it deals with a very familiar and relatable experience, all while peaking to its heights on representation of black and queer characters and a poignant and truthful way.
I closed out September watching “Petite Maman” and that is just a beautiful film. The twin girls are amazing in it and the premise is so sweet you just get immersed in it. I cried in the end but felt warm and cozy all the way through.
Then October came up and I got busy on movies and TV shows and comedy specials. This last category alone, I watched Nick Kroll’s, Hasan Minhaj and Aziz Ansari’s brand-new specials, Hasan being absolutely innovative and Aziz totally relatable for the first time in a long while, plus Mike Birbiglia’s at his best on his 2013 special. I’ve also watched the South Park TV movies “Post Covid” and “Streaming Wars”, for varying reactions and hard laughs. I also logged on Letterboxd the Arctic Monkeys specials Warp Speed Chic and their latest Live at King’s Theater, which live stream I watched at home with my best buddy drinking wine and throwing darts.
I’ve finally watched “Black Panther” in preparation to take my godson to see the new one, and I got to say, it is impressive. I also watched “Thor Love and Thunder” and it is not as bad as people said it was (way better than Dark World). I kind of liked it. Christian Bale is the best Chris in this movie and also the best villain marvel ever killed too soon. Y’all paid too much attention to the screaming goats, it’s not as distracting as you’ve made it seem.
In the same weekend I also watched the 2021’s “West Side Story” (god bless Steven Spielberg), Marvel’s “Werewolf by Night” which is way better than it has any right to be. I’d rather not know if there’s any mid credits scene to tie it to the MCU in general, because it is just better if not. Gael Garcia Bernal hasn’t aged a day. Michael Giachinno is (surprisingly) always a win. Marvel should love themselves less. All superhero films should last less then 2 hours, hell, some should only last 1. It was a fun Friday night choice.
I also watched “Chef”, and I got some random thoughts on this. First, I don’t care if he’s the best chef in the world, he did not bang Sofia and Scarlett. Second, I got hungry and made a sandwich. Third, is Favreau cuban or is this cultural misappropriation? This film is fun, bruv, I’ll give you that. Dustin Hoffman is always a win. Robbie Downey Jr had no script, he just definitely got on the set and talked his ass off for 10 minutes and it made the cut.
I’ve seen Pixar’s “Lightyear” to a better experienced than I thought it would be (people complain too much) and rewatch “Luca” for fifteen-minute cry in the end of the film. Animation wise I’ve also rewatched “The Boss Baby” film, one of my favorite Alec Baldwin performances ever, seen some episodes of Love, Death and Robots season 3 (Night of the Mini Dead is the best of the season), and Netflix’s new “Entergalactic”, a delicious journey. It feels good to see a black couple love story that uses all the perks of being animation for stoners… god damn, Kid Cudi is great.
I also watched Amazon’s “The Rings of Power”, which was better than I thought it would be, but so far from the greatness of Peter Jackson’s rendition, which led me to rewatch the original trilogy for the first time ever, and I got say, those films are perfect, “The Two Towers” stands as my favorite of all of them. But no, I will not rewatch The Hobbit.
Talking about greats, I rewatched “The Tree of Life” for my birthday and I just got nothing else to say about this perfect film. It is a better dinosaur film than any Jurassic World thou. I’ll say that. Ha, I also watched “Bros”, in the theater, but I talked about it in another post already.
I watched and fell in love completely with “Captain Fantastic”. This is a masterpiece. Vigo is flawless in the movie, the kid actors are pretty great, the premise and story arcs are on point, best rendition of G&R’s Sweet Child of Mine, and a great early George MacKay performance. Quite the emotional ride. And that’s how I started October. I closed it with Spyke Jonze’s “Her”, a movie that hit quite differently by rewatching seven years later and closer to 30. And for this one, I got a lot of random thoughts. I mean, when you realize Paul the receptionist is Chris “fucking” Pratt. I just hope I don’t end up dating siri, of all people. Brian Cox will always win (that’s a Succession reference). Scarlet is so fucking good in this film, which is almost an impossibility. Is it too on the nose to name amy adams caracther amy? The way she simply leaves… god damn. I wanna play that fucking videogame. Every piece of music in this film is a masterpiece, thank goodness for Arcade Fire. Where can I buy Theodore’s book? I lost track of when the color pallet of this film became the norm. Samantha is just a teenager in so many groups. Theo was not the first to ask that question right, someone else must have too. Can’t blame Joachim for becoming the Joker after such heartbreak. Y’all realize our best-case scenario is all the AI OS’s leave us, right? Avery good reason to delete your Facebook account. Watch this with airpods. You’ll die when you realize it.
So this is it. I close this with lots of irony and kinda sorry for taking so long to come back to it. Hopeful for November, even thou I only watched on pretty bad movie so far.
Go watch some of these if you dare and form your own opinion.
